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Albert  H.  Lybyer 
Professor  of  History 
University  of  Illinois 
1916-1949 


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CENTRAL  CIRCULATION 

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Latest  Date  stamped  below.  ^ 

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Beauty. 

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TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS 


AN 


ESSAY  IN  COMPARATIVE  THEOLOGY. 


BY 


JAMES  FBEEMAN  CLABKE. 


“  Prophets  who  have  been  since  the  world  began.”  —  Luke  i.  70. 

“  Gentiles  .  .  %  .  who  show  the  work  (or  influence)  of  the  (that)  law  which  is  written  in 
their  hearts.”  — Romans  ii.  15. 

“  God  ....  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of 
the  earth  ....  that  they  should  seek  the  Lord,  if  haply  they  may  feel  after  him  and  find 
him.”  — Acts  xviii.  24  -  27. 


BOSTON: 

JAMES  R.  OSGOOD  AND  COMPANY, 

Late  Ticknor  &  Fields,  and  Fields,  Osgood,  &  Co. 

1877 . 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1871, 
BY  JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE, 
in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 

i 


University  Press:  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co., 
Cambridge. 


£ 


sc 

•  a) 


-190 

If 'll 


TO 


WILLIAM  HENKY  CHANGING, 


MY  FRIEND  AND  FELLOW-STUDENT 
DURING  MANY  YEARS, 


srfjts  amork 


IS  AFFECTIONATELY  INSCRIBED. 

'f  ’ 

\ 


> 

X; 

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IV 

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I 


PREFACE. 


♦ 


HE  first  six  chapters  of  the  present  volume  are  com- 


-L-  posed  from  six  articles  prepared  for  the  Atlantic 
Monthly,  and  published  in  that  magazine  in  1868.  They 
attracted  quite  as  much  attention  as  the  writer  antici¬ 
pated,  and  this  has  induced  him  to  enlarge  them,  and 
add  other  chapters.  His  aim  is  to  enable  the  reader  to 
become  acquainted  with  the  doctrines  and  customs  of  the 
principal  religions  of  the  world,  without  having  to  con¬ 
sult  numerous  volumes.  He  has  not  come  to  the  task 
without  some  preparation,  for  it  is  more  than  twenty- 
five  years  since  he  first  made  of  this  study  a  speciality. 
In  this  volume  it  is  attempted  to  give  the  latest  results 
of  modern  investigations,  so  far  as  any  definite  and  trust¬ 
worthy  facts  have  been  attained.  But  the  writer  is  well 
aware  of  the  difficulty  of  being  always  accurate  in  a  task 
which  involves  such  interminable  study  and  such  an 
amount  of  details.  He  can  only  say,  in  the  words  of  a 
Hebrew  writer :  “  If  I  have  done  well,  and  as  is  fitting 
the  story,  it  is  that  which  I  desired ;  but  if  slenderly  and 
meanly,  it  is  that  which  I  could  attain  unto.” 


CONTENTS. 


♦ 


•  • 

CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTION.  - ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 

Page 


$  1.  Object  of  the  present  Work . 1 

4  2.  Comparative  Theology ;  its  Nature,  Value,  and  present  Position  .  3 

§  3.  Ethnic  Religions.  Injustice  often  done  to  them  by  Christian  Apol¬ 
ogists  . 4 

§  4.  How  Ethnic  Religions  were  regarded  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles  .  9 

§  5.  Comparative  Theology  will  furnish  a  new  Class  of  Evidences  in 

Support  of  Christianity . 13 


§  6.  It  will  show  that,  while  most  of  the  Religions  of  the  World  are  Eth¬ 
nic,  or  the  Religions  of  Races,  Christianity  is  Catholic,  or  adapted 

to  become  the  Religion  of  all  Races . 15 

\  7.  It  will  show  that  Ethnic  Religions  are  partial,  Christianity  universal  21 
|  8.  It  will  show  that  Ethnic  Religions  are  arrested,  but  that  Christianity 

is  steadily  progressive . 29 


CHAPTER  II. 

CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE,  OR  THE  PROSE  OF  ASIA. 

§  1.  Peculiarities  of  Chinese  Civilization . 32 

§  2.  Chinese  Government  based  on  Education.  Civil-Service  Examina¬ 


tions  . 38 

§  3.  Life  and  Character  of  Confucius . 44 

§  4.  Philosophy  and  subsequent  Development  of  Confucianism  .  .  52 

§  5.  Lao-tse  and  Tao-ism . 53 

§  6.  Religious  Character  of  the  “  Kings.” . 57 

§  7.  Confucius  and  Christianity.  Character  of  the  Chinese  .  .  .58 

§  8.  The  Tae-ping  Insurrection . 62 

Note.  The  Nestorian  Inscription  in  China . 71 


CHAPTER  III. 

BRAHMANISM.  ' 

§  1.  Our  Knowledge  of  Brahmanism.  Sir  William  Jones  .  .  .  77 

{  2.  Difficulty  of  this  Study.  The  Complexity  of  the  System.  The 
Hindoos  have  no  History.  Their  Ultra-Spirifualism. 


81 


Vlll 


CONTENTS. 


§  3.  Helps  from  Comparative  Philology.  The  Aryans  in  Central  Asia  .  85 

§  4.  The  Aryans  in  India.  The  Native  Races.  The  Vedic  Age.  Theol¬ 
ogy  of  the  Vedas . 89 

§5.  Second  Period.  LawsofManu.  The  Brahmanic  Age  .  .  .  100 

§  6.  The  Three  Hindoo  Systems  of  Philosophy,  —  The  Sankhya,  Vedanta, 

and  Nvasa . 114 

$  7.  Origin  o£  the  Hindoo  Triad . 123 

§  8.  The  Epics,  the  Puranas,  and  Modern  Hindoo  Worship  .  .  .  128 

§  9.  Relation  of  Brahmanism  to  Christianity . 135 

CHAPTER  IV. 

BUDDHISM,  OR  THE  PROTESTANTISM  OF  THE  EAST. 

•  * 

§  1.  Buddhism,  in  its  Forms,  resembles  Romanism;  in  its  Spirit,  Prot¬ 
estantism  . 139 

§  2.  Extent  of  Buddhism.  Its  Scriptures . 146 

§  3.  Sakya-muni,  the  Founder  of  Buddhism . 148 

§  4.  Leading  Doctrines  of  Buddhism . 153 

§  5.  The  Spirit  of  Buddhism  Rational  and  Humane . 156 

§  6.  Buddhism  as  a  Religion . 159 

§  7.  Karma  and  Nirvana . 161 

§  8.  Good  and  Evil  of  Buddhism . 164 

§  9.  Relation  of  Buddhism  to  Christianity . 167 


CHAPTER  V. 

ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 

§  1.  Ruins  of  the  Palace  of  Xerxes  at  Persepolis . 171 

§  2.  Greek  Accounts  of  Zoroaster.  Plutarch’s  Description  of  his  Religion  175 
§  3.  Anquetil  du  Perron  and  his  Discovery  of  the  Zend  Avesta.  .  .  178 

§  4.  Epoch  of  Zoroaster.  What  do  we  know  of  him  ?  ...  .  180 

§  5.  Spirit  of  Zoroaster  and  of  his  Religion . 182 

§  6.  Character  of  the  Zend  Avesta . 187 

§  7.  Later  Development  of  the  System  in  the  Bundehesch  .  .  .  194 

§  8.  Relation  of  the  Religion  of  the  Zend  Avesta  to  that  of  the  Vedas  .  201 
§  9.  Is  Monotheism  or  pure  Dualism  the  Doctrine  of  the  Zend  Avesta  .  203 

§  10.  Relation  of  this  System  to  Christianity.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  .  204 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 

§  1.  Antiquity  and  Extent  of  Egyptian  Civilization . 209 

§  2.  Religious  Character  of  the  Egyptians.  Their  Ritual  .  .  .  214 

|  3.  Theology  of  Egypt.  Sources  of  our  Knowledge  concerning  it  .  .  223 

§  4.  Central  Idea  of  Egyptian  Theology  and  Religion.  Animal  Worship  225 
§  5.  Sources  of  Eg}Tptian  Theology.  Age  of  the  Empire  and  Affinities 

of  the  Race . 230 

§  6.  The  Three  Orders  of  Gods . 239 

§  7.  Influence  upon  Judaism  and  Christianity . 250 


CONTENTS. 


IX 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 

$  1.  The  Land  and  the  Race . 259 

^  2.  Idea  and  general  Character  of  Greek  Religion  ....  266 

$  3.  The  Gods  of  Greece  before  Homer . *  .270 

§  4.  The  Gods  of  the  Poets . 277 

^  5.  The  Gods  of  the  Artists . 286 

^  6.  The  Gods  of  the  Philosophers . 291 

^  7.  Worship  of  Greece . 297 

§  8.  The  Mysteries.  Orphism . 301 

§  9.  Relation  of  Greek  Religion  to  Christianity . 308 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 

§  1.  Origin  and  essential  Character  of  the  Religion  of  Rome  .  .  .  316 

§  2.  The  Gods  of  Rome . 321 

§  3.  Worship  and  Ritual . 331 

(  4.  The  Decay  of  the  Roman  Religion . 339 

\  5.  Relation  of  the  Roman  Religion  to  Christianity .....  347 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION. 

§  1.  The  Land  and  the  Race . 355 

§  2.  Idea  of  the  Scandinavian  Religion . 362 

§  3.  The  Eddas  and  their  Contents . 363 

§  4.  The  Gods  of  Scandinavia . 376 

§  5.  Resemblance  of  the  Scandinavian  Mythology  to  that  of  Zoroaster  .  384 

§  6.  Scandinavian  Worship . 385 

§  7.  Social  Character,  Maritime  Discoveries,  and  Political  Institutions  of 

the  Scandinavians . 387 

§  8.  Relation  of  this  System  to  Christianity . 390 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 

$  1.  Palestine,  and  the  Semitic  Races . 397 

§2.  Abraham;  or,  Judaism  as  the  Family  Worship  of  a  Supreme  Being  402 

§  3.  Moses  :  or,  Judaism  as  the  national  Worship  of  a  just  and  holy  King  409 
§  4.  David;  or,  Judaism  as  the  personal  Worship  of  a  Father  and  Friend  421 

§5.  Solomon;  or,  the  Religious  Relapse . 428 

§  6.  The  Prophets;  or,  Judaism  as  a  Hope  of  a  spiritual  and  universal 

Kingdom  of  God . 438 

§  7.  Judaism  as  a  Preparation  for  Christianity  .  444 


X 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 

§  1.  Recent  Works  on  the  Life  of  Mohammed . 448 

§  2.  The  Arabs  and  Arabia . 452 

§  3.  Early  Life  of  Mohammed,  to  the  Hegira . 454 

{  4.  Change  in  the  Character  of  Mohammed  after  the  Hegira  .  .  465 

§  5.  Religious  Doctrines  and  Practices  among  the  Mohammedans  .  .  472 

§6.  The  Criticism  of  Mr.  Palgrave  on  Mohammedan  Theology  .  .  478 

§  7.  Mohammedanism  a  Relapse ;  the  worst  Form  of  Monotheism,  and  a 

retarding  Element  in  Civilization . 481 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY. 

§  1.  General  Results  of  this  Survey  .  .  . . 489 

|  2.  Christianity  a  Pleroma,  or  Fulness  of  Life . 492 

§  3.  Christianity,  as  a  Pleroma,  compared  with  Brahmanism,  Confu¬ 
cianism,  and  Buddhism . 494 

§  4.  Christianity  compared  with  the  Avesta  and  the  Eddas.  The  Duad 

in  all  Religions . 496 

§  5.  Christianity  and  the  Religions  of  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Rome  .  .  499 

{  6.  Christianity  in  Relation  to  Judaism  and  Mohammedanism.  The 

Monad  in  all  Religions . 501 

§  7.  The  Fulness  of  Christianity  is  derived  from  the  Life  of  Jesus  .  504 

$  8.  Christianity  as  a  Religion  of  Progress  and  of  universal  Unity  .  .  507 


TEN.  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


INTRODUCTION.  —  ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 

§  1.  Object  of  the  present  "Work.  §2.  Comparative  Theology;  its  Na¬ 
ture,  Value,  and  present  Position.  §  3.  Ethnic  Religions.  Injustice 
often  done  to  them  by  Christian  Apologists.  §  4.  How  Ethnic  Re¬ 
ligions  were  regarded  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles.  §  5.  Compara¬ 
tive  Theology  will  furnish  a  new  Class  of  Evidences  in  Support  of 
Christianity.  §  6.  It  will  show  that,  while  most  of  the  Religions 
of  the  World  are  Ethnic,  or  the  Religions  of  Races,  Christianity  is 
Catholic,  or  adapted  to  become  the  Religion  of  all  Races.  §  7.  It  will 
show  that  Ethnic  Religions  are  Partial,  Christianity  Universal.  §  8. 
It  will  show  that  Ethnic  Religions  are  arrested,  but  that  Christianity 
is  steadily  progressive. 


§  1.  Object  of  the  'present  Work. 


HE  present  work  is  what  the  Germans  call  a  Versuch, 


I  and  the  English  an  Essay,  or  attempt.  It  is  an  at¬ 
tempt  to  compare  the  great  religions  of  the  world  with 
each  other.  When  completed,  this  comparison  ought  to 
show  what  each  is,  what  it  contains,  wherein  it  resembles 
the  others,  wherein  it  differs  from  the  others ;  its  origin 
and  development,  its  place  in  universal  history ;  its  posi¬ 
tive  and  negative  qualities,  its  truths  and  errors,  and  its 
influence,  past,  present,  or  future,  on  the  welfare  of  man¬ 
kind.  For  everything  becomes  more  clear  by  comparison. 
We  can  never  understand  the  nature  of  a  phenomenon 
when  we  contemplate  it  by  itself,  as  well  as  when  we  look 
at  it  in  its  relations  to  other  phenomena  of  the  same  kind.. 
The  qualities  of  each  become  more  clear  in  contrast  with 
those  of  the  others.  By  comparing  together,  therefore,, 


l 


2 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


the  religions  of  mankind,  to  see  wherein  they  agree  and 
wherein  they  differ,  we  are  able  to  perceive  with  greater 
accuracy  what  each  is.  The  first  problem  in  Comparative 
Theology  is  therefore  analytical,  being  to  distinguish  each 
religion  from  the  rest.  We  compare  them  to  see  wherein 
they  agree  and  wherein  they  differ.  But  the  next  prob¬ 
lem  in  Comparative  Theology  is  synthetical,  and  considers 
the  adaptation  of  each  system  to  every  other,  to  deter¬ 
mine  its  place,  use,  and  value,  in  reference  to  universal 
or  absolute  religion.  It  must,  therefore,  examine  the  dif¬ 
ferent  religions  to  find  wherein  each  is  complete  or  defec¬ 
tive,  true  or  false ;  how  each  may  supply  the  defects  of 
the  other  or  prepare  the  way  for  a  better;  how  each 
religion  acts  on  the  race  which  receives  it,  is  adapted 
to  that  race,  and  to  the  region  of  the  earth  which 
it  inhabits.  In  this  department,  therefore,  it  connects 
itself  with  Comparative  Geography,  with  universal  his¬ 
tory,  and  with  ethics.  Finally,  this  department  of  Com¬ 
parative  Theology  shows  the  relation  of  each  partial 
religion  to  human  civilization,  and  observes  how  each 
religion  of  the  world  is  a  step  in  the  progress  of  hu¬ 
manity.  It  shows  that  both  the  positive  and  negative 
side  of  a  religion  make  it  a  preparation  for  a  higher  re¬ 
ligion,  and  that  the  universal  religion  must  root  itself  in 
the  decaying  soil  of  partial  religions.  And  in  this  sense 
Comparative  Theology  becomes  the  science  of  missions. 

Such  a  work  as  this  is  evidently  too  great  for  a  single 
mind.  Many  students  must  co-operate,  and  that  through 
many  years,  before  it  can  be  completed.  This  volume  is 
intended  as  a  contribution  toward  that  end.  It  will  con¬ 
tain  an  account  of  each  of  the  principal  religions,  and 
its  development.  It  will  be,  therefore,  devoted  to  the 
natural  history  of  ethnic  and  catholic  religions,  and  its 
method  will  be  that  of  analysis.  The  second  part,  which 
may  be  published  hereafter,  will  compare  these  different 
systems  to  show  what  each  teaches  concerning  the  great 
subjects  of  religious  thought, —  God,  Duty,  and  Immor¬ 
tality.  Finally,  it  will  compare  them  with  Christianity, 
and  will  inquire  whether  or  not  that  is  capable  of  becom¬ 
ing  the  religion  of  the  human  race. 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  KELIGIONS. 


3 


§  2.  Comparative  Theology  ;  its  Nature ,  Value,  and  present 

Position. 

The  work  of  Comparative  Theology  is  to  do  equal  jus¬ 
tice  to  all  the  religious  tendencies  of  mankind.  Its 
position  is  that  of  a  judge,  not  that  of  an  advocate.  As¬ 
suming,  with  the  Apostle  Paul,  that  each  religion  has 
come  providentially,  as  a  method  by  which  different  races 
“  should  seek  the  Lord,  if  haply  they  might  feel  after  him 
and  find  him,”  it  attempts  to  show  how  each  may  be  a 
step  in  the  religious  progress  of  the  races,  and  “  a  school¬ 
master  to  bring  men  to  Christ.”  It  is  bound,  however, 
to  abstain  from  such  inferences  until  it  has  accurately 
ascertained  all  the  facts.  Its  first  problem  is  to  learn 
what  each  system  contains ;  it  may  then  go  on,  and  en¬ 
deavor  to  generalize  from  its  facts. 

Comparative  Theology  is,  therefore,  as  yet  in  its  infan¬ 
cy.  The  same  tendency  in  this  century,  which  has  pro¬ 
duced  the  sciences  of  Comparative  Anatomy,  Comparative 
Geography,  and  Comparative  Philology,  is  now  creating 
this  new  science  of  Comparative  Theology.*  It  will  be 
to  any  special  theology  as  Comparative  Anatomy  is  to 
any  special  anatomy,  Comparative  Geography  to  any 
special  geography,  or  Comparative  Philology  to  the  study 
of  any  particular  language.  It  may  be  called  a  science, 
since  it  consists  in  the  study  of  the  facts  of  human  his¬ 
tory,  and  their  relation  to  each  other.  It  does  not  dogma¬ 
tize  :  it  observes.  It  deals  only  with  phenomena,  —  single 
phenomena,  or  facts  ;  grouped  phenomena,  or  laws. 

Several  valuable  works,  bearing  more  or  less  directly 
on  Comparative  Theology,  have  recently  appeared  in  Ger¬ 
many,  France,  and  England.  Among  these  may  be  men¬ 
tioned  those  of  Max  Muller,  Bunsen,  Burnouf,  Dollinger, 
Hardwicke,  St.  Hilaire,  Diincker,  F.  C.  Baur,  Penan, 
Creuzer,  Maurice,  G.  W.  Cox,  and  others. 

In  America,  except  Mr.  Alger’s  admirable  monograph 
on  the  ‘‘Doctrine  of  the  Future  Life,”  we  have  scarcely 
anything  worthy  of  notice.  Mrs.  Lydia  Maria  Child’s 

*  It  is  one  of  the  sagacious  remarks  of  Goethe,  that  “the  eighteenth 
century  tended  to  analysis,  hut  the  nineteenth  will  deal  with  synthesis.* 


4 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


work  on  tlie  “  Progress  of  Religious  Ideas  ”  deserves  the 
greatest  credit,  when  we  consider  the  time  when  it  was 
written  and  the  few  sources  of  information  then  accessi¬ 
ble.*  Twenty-five  years  ago  it  was  hardly  possible  to  pro¬ 
cure  any  adequate  information  concerning  Brahmanism, 
Buddhism,  or  the  religions  of  Confucius,  Zoroaster,  and 
Mohammed.  Hardly  any  part  of  the  Vedas  had  been 
translated  into  a  European  language.  The  works  of 
Anquetil  du  Perron  and  Kleuker  were  still  the  highest 
authority  upon  the  Zendavesta.  About  the  Buddhists 
scarcely  anything  was  known.  But  now,  though  many 
important  lacuncc  remain  to  be  filled,  we  have  ample 
means  of  ascertaining  the  essential  facts  concerning  most 
of  these  movements  of  the  human  soul.  The  time  seems 
to  have  come  to  accomplish  something  which  may  have 
a  lasting  value. 

§  3.  Ethnic  Religions.  Injustice  often  clone  to  them  by 

Christian  Apologists. 

Comparative  Theology,  pursuing  its  impartial  course  as 
a  positive  science,  will  avoid  the  error  into  which  most 
of  the  Christian  apologists  of  the  last  century  fell,  in 
speaking  of  ethnic  or  heathen  religions.  In  order  to 
show  the  need  of  Christianity,  they  thought  it  necessary 
to  disparage  all  other  religions.  Accordingly  they  have 
insisted  that,  while  the  Jewish  and  Christian  religions 
were  revealed,  all  other  religions  were  invented ;  that, 
while  these  were  from  God,  those  were  the  work  of  man ; 
that,  while  in  the  true  religions  there  was  nothing  false, 
in  the  false  religions  there  was  nothing  true.  If  any  trace 
of  truth  was  to  be  found  in  Polytheism,  it  was  so  mixed 
with  error  as  to  be  practically  only  evil.  As  the  doc¬ 
trines  of  heathen  religions  were  corrupt,  so  their  worship 
was  only  a  debasing  superstition.  Their  influence  was  to 
make  men  worse,  not  better ;  their  tendency  was  to  pro¬ 
duce  sensuality,  cruelty,  and  universal  degradation.  They 
did  not  proceed,  in  any  sense,  from  God ;  they  were  not 

*  Professor  Cocker’s  work  on  “  Christianity  and  Greek  Philosophy," 
should  also  he  mentioned. 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 


5 


even  the  work  of  good  men,  but  rather  of  deliberate 
imposition  and  priestcraft.  A  supernatural  religion  had 
become  necessary  in  order  to  counteract  the  fatal  conse¬ 
quences  of  these  debased  and  debasing  superstitions. 
This  is  the  view  of  the  great  natural  religions  of  the  world 
which  was  taken  by  such  writers  as  Leland,  Whitby,  and 
Warburton  in  the  last  century.  Even  liberal  thinkers, 
like  James  Foster*  and  John  Locke,' f*  declare  that,  at  the 
coming  of  Christ,  mankind  had  fallen  into  utter  darkness, 
and  that  vice  and  superstition  filled  the  world.  Infidel 
no  less  than  Christian  writers  took  the  same  disparaging 
view  of  natural  religions.  They  considered  them,  in  their 
source,  the  work  of  fraud ;  in  their  essence,  corrupt  super¬ 
stitions  ;  in  their  doctrines,  wholly  false ;  in  their  moral 
tendency,  absolutely  injurious  ;  and  in  their  result,  degen¬ 
erating  more  and  more  into  greater  evil. 

A  few  writers,  like  Cudworth  and  the  Platonists,  en¬ 
deavored  to  put  in  a  good  word  for  the  Greek  philoso¬ 
phers,  but  the  religions  of  the  world  were  abandoned  to 
unmitigated  reprobation.  The  account  which  so  candid 
a  writer  as  Mosheim  gives  of  them  is  worth  noticing,  on 
account  of  its  sweeping  character.  “  All  the  nations  of  the 
world,”  he  says,  “  except  the  Jews,  were  plunged  in  the 
grossest  superstition.  Some  nations,  indeed,  went  be¬ 
yond  others  in  impiety  and  absurdity,  but  all  stood 
charged  with  irrationality  and  gross  stupidity  in  matters  of 
religion.”  “  The  greater  part  of  the  gods  of  all  nations  were 
ancient  heroes,  famous  for  their  achievements  and  their 
worthy  deeds,  such  as  kings,  generals,  and  founders  of 

*  James  Foster  has  a  sermon  on  “  The  Advantages  of  a  Revelation,”  in 
which  he  declares  that,  at  the  time  of  Christ’s  coming,  “  just  notions  of 
God  were,  in  general,  erased  from  the  minds  of  men.  His  worship  was 
debased  and  polluted,  and  scarce  any  traces  could  be  discerned  of  the 
genuine  and  immutable  religion  of  nature.” 

+  John  Locke,  in  his  “  Reasonableness  of  Christianity,”  says  that 
when  Christ  came  “men  had  given  themselves  up  into  the  hands  of 
their  priests,  to  fill  their  heads  with  false  notions  of  the  Deity,  and 
their  worship  with  foolish  rites,  as  they  pleased  ;  and  what  dread  or  craft 
once  began,  devotion  soon  made  sacred,  and  religion  immutable.”  “In 
this  state  of  darkness  and  ignorance  of  the  true  God,  vice  and  supersti¬ 
tion  held  the  world.”  Quotations  of  this  sort  might  be  indefinitely  mul¬ 
tiplied.  See  an  article  by  the  present  writer,  in  the  “  Christian  Exam¬ 
iner,”  March,  1857.  4 


6 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


cities.”  “  To  these  some  added  the  more  splendid  and  use¬ 
ful  objects  in  the  natural  world,  as  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars  ;  and  some  were  not  ashamed  to  pay  divine  honors  to 
mountains,  rivers,  trees,  etc.”  “  The  worship  of  these  deities 
consisted  in  ceremonies,  sacrifices,  and  prayers.  The  cere¬ 
monies  were,  for  the  most  part,  absurd  and  ridiculous, 
and  throughout  debasing,  obscene,  and  cruel.  The  pray¬ 
ers  were  truly  insipid  and  void  of  piety,  both  in  their 
form  and  matter.”  “  The  priests  who  presided  over  this 
worship  basely  abused  their  authority  to  impose  on  the 
people.”  “  The  whole  pagan  system  had  not  the  least  effi¬ 
cacy  to  produce  and  cherish  virtuous  emotions  in  the 
soul ;  because  the  gods  and  goddesses  were  patterns  of 
vice,  the  priests  bad  men,  and  the  doctrines  false.”  * 

This  view  of  heathen  religions  is  probably  much  exag¬ 
gerated.  They  must  contain  more  truth  than  error,  and 
must  have  been,  on  the  whole,  useful  to  mankind.  We 
do  not  believe  that  they  originated  in  human  fraud,  that 
their  essence  is  superstition,  that  there  is  more  falsehood 
than  truth  in  their  doctrines,  that  their  moral  tendency 
is  mainly  injurious,  or  that  they  continually  degenerate 
into  greater  evil.  No  doubt  it  may  be  justly  predicated 
of  all  these  systems  that  they  contain  much  which  is 
false  and  injurious  to  human  virtue.  But  the  following 
considerations  may  tend  to  show  that  all  the  religions  of 
the  earth  are  providential,  and  that  all  tend  to  benefit 
mankind. 

To  ascribe  the  vast  phenomena  of  religion,  in  their 
variety  and  complexity,  to  man  as  their  author,  and  to 
suppose  the  whole  a  mere  work  of  human  fraud,  is  not 
a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  facts  before  us.  That 
priests,  working  on  human  ignorance  or  fear,  should  be 
able  to  build  up  such  a  great  mass  of  belief,  sentiment, 
and  action,  is  like  the  Hindoo  cosmogony,  which  sup¬ 
poses  the  globe  to  rest  on  an  elephant,  the  elephant  on  a 
turtle,  and  the  turtle  on  nothing  at  all. 

If  the  people  were  so  ignorant,  how  happened  the 
priests  to  be  so  wise  ?  If  the  people  were  so  credulous, 
why  were  not  the  priests  credulous  too  ?  “  Like  people, 

*  Mosheim’s  Church  History,  Yol.  I.  Chap.  I. 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 


7 


like  priests,”  is  a  proverb  approved  by  experience. 
Among  so  many  nations  and  through  so  many  centuries, 
why  has  not  some  one  priest  betrayed  the  secret  of  the 
famous  imposition  ?  Apply  a  similar  theory  to  any  other 
human  institution,  and  how  patent  is  its  absurdity  !  Let 
a  republican  contend  that  all  other  forms  of  government — 
the  patriarchal  system,  government  by  castes,  the  feu¬ 
dal  system,  absolute  and  limited  monarchies,  oligarchies, 
and  aristocracies  —  are  wholly  useless  and  evil,  and  were 
the  result  of  statecraft  alone,  with  no  root  in  human  na¬ 
ture  or  the  needs  of  man.  Let  one  maintain  that  every 
system  of  law  (except  our  own)  was  an  invention  of  law¬ 
yers  for  private  ends.  Let  one  argue  in  the  same  way 
about  medicine,  and  say  that  this  is  a  pure  system  of 
quackery,  devised  by  physicians,  in  order  to  get  a  support 
out  of  the  people  for  doing  nothing.  We  should  at  once 
reply  that,  though  error  and  ignorance  may  play  a  part  in 
all  these  institutions,  they  cannot  be  based  on  error  and 
ignorance  only.  Nothing  which  has  not  in  it  some  ele¬ 
ments  of  use  can  hold  its  position  in  the  world  during 
so  long  a  time  and  over  so  wide  a  range.  It  is  only 
reasonable  to  say  the  same  of  heathen  or  ethnic  religions. 
They  contain,  no  doubt,  error  and  evil.  No  doubt  priest¬ 
craft  has  been  carried  very  far  in  them,  though  not  fur¬ 
ther  perhaps  than  it  has  sometimes  been  carried  in  Chris¬ 
tianity.  But  unless  they  contained  more  of  good  than 
evil,  they  could  not  have  kept  their  place.  They  partially 
satisfied  a  great  hunger  of  the  human  heart.  They  exer¬ 
cised  some  restraint  on  human  wilfulness  and  passion. 
They  have  directed,  however  imperfectly,  the  human  con¬ 
science  toward  the  right.  To  assume  that  they  are  wholly 
evil  is  disrespectful  to  human  nature.  It  supposes  man 
to  be  the  easy  and  universal,  dupe  of  fraud.  But  these 
religions  do  not  rest  on  such  a  sandy  foundation,  but 
on  the  feeling  of  dependence,  the  sense  of  accountability, 
the  recognition  of  spiritual  realities  very  near  to  this 
world  of  matter,  and  the  need  of  looking  up  and  worship¬ 
ping  some  unseen  power  higher  and  better  than  ourselves. 
A  decent  respect  for  the  opinions  of  mankind  forbids  ug 
to  ascribe  pagan  religions  to  priestcraft  as  their  chief 
source. 


8 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


And  a  reverence  for  Divine  Providence  brings  us  to  the 
same  conclusion.  Can  it  be  that  God  lias  left  himself 
without  a  witness  in  the  world,  except  among  the  He¬ 
brews  in  ancient  times  and  the  Christians  in  modern 
times  ?  This  narrow  creed  excludes  God  from  any  com¬ 
munion  with  the  great  majority  of  human  beings.  The 
Father  of  the  human  race  is  represented  as  selecting 
a  few  of  his  children  to  keep  near  himself,  and  as  leaving 
all  the  rest  to  perish  in  their  ignorance  and  error.  And 
this  is  not  because  they  are  prodigal  children  who  have 
gone  astray  into  a  far  country  of  their  own  accord ;  for 
they  are  just  where  they  were  placed  by  their  Creator. 
He  “  has  determined  the  times  before  appointed  and  the 
bounds  of  their  habitation.”  He  has  caused  some  to  be 
born  in  India,  where  they  can  only  hear  of  him  through 
Brahmanism ;  and  some  in  China,  where  they  can  know 
him  only  through  Buddha  and  Confucius.  The  doctrine 
which  we  are  opposing  is ;  that,  being  put  there  by  God, 
they  are  born  into  hopeless  error,  and  are  then  punished 
for  their  error  by  everlasting  destruction.  The  doctrine 
for  which  we  contend  is  that  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  that 
God  has  “  determined  beforehand  the  bounds  of  their 
habitation,  that  they  should  seek  the  Lord,  if  haply  they 
may  feel  after  him  and  find  him.”  Paul  teaches  that 
“  all  nations  dwelling  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth  ”  may 
not  only  seek  and  feel  after  God,  but  also  find  him. 
But  as  all  living  in  heathen  lands  are  heathen,  if  they 
find  God  at  all,  they  must  find  him  through  heathenism. 
The  pagan  religions  are  the  effort  of  man  to  feel  after 
God.  Otherwise  we  must  conclude  that  the  Being 
without  whom  not  a  sparrow  falls  to  the  ground,  the 
Being  who  never  puts  an  insect  into  the  air  or  a  polyp 
into  the  water  without  providing  it  with  some  appro¬ 
priate  food,  so  that  it  may  live  and  grow,  has  left  the 
vast  majority  of  his  human  children,  made  with  relig¬ 
ious  appetences  of  conscience,  reverence,  hope,  without  a 
corresponding  nutriment  of  truth.  This  view  tends  to 
atheism ;  for  if  the  presence  of  adaptation  everywhere 
is  the  legitimate  proof  of  creative  design,  the  absence 
of  adaptation  in  so  important  a  sphere  tends,  so  far,  to 
set  aside  that  proof. 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 


9 


The  view  which  we  are  opposing  contradicts  that  law 
of  progress  which  alone  gives  meaning  and  unity  to  his¬ 
tory.  Instead  of  progress,  it  teaches  degeneracy  and 
failure.  But  elsewhere  we  see  progress,  not  recession. 
Geology  shows  us  higher  forms  of  life  succeeding  to  the 
lower.  Botany  exhibits  the  lichens  and  mosses  preparing 
a  soil  for  more  complex  forms  of  vegetation.  Civil  his¬ 
tory  shows  the  savage  state  giving  way  to  the  semi-civil¬ 
ized,  and  that  to  the  civilized.  If  heathen  religions  are 
a  step,  a  preparation  for  Christianity,  then  this  law  of  de¬ 
grees  appears  also  in  religion ;  then  we  see  an  order  in 
the  progress  of  the  human  soul,  —  “  first  the  blade,  then 
the  ear,  afterward  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.”  Then  we  can 
understand  why  Christ’s  coming  was  delayed  till  the  ful¬ 
ness  of  the  time  had  come.  But  otherwise  all,  in  this 
most  important  sphere  of  human  life,  is  in  disorder,  with¬ 
out  unity,  progress,  meaning,  or  providence. 

These  views,  we  trust,  will  be  amply  confirmed  when 
we  come  to  examine  each  great  religion  separately  and 
carefully.  We  shall  find  them  always  feeling  after  God, 
often  finding  him.  We  shall  see  that  in  their  origin  they 
are  not  the  work  of  priestcraft,  but  of  human  nature ; 
in  their  essence  not  superstitions,  but  religions  ;  in  their 
doctrines  true  more  frequently  than  false  ;  in  their 
moral  tendency  good  rather  than  evil.  And  instead  of 
degenerating  toward  something  worse,  they  come  to  pre¬ 
pare  the  way  for  something  better. 

§  4.  How  Ethnic  Religions  were  regarded  by  Christ  and 

his  Apostles. 

According  to  Christ  and  the  Apostles,  Christianity  was 
to  grow  out  of  Judaism,  and  be  developed  into  a  univer¬ 
sal  religion.  Accordingly,  the  method  of  Jesus  was  to  go 
first  to  the  Jews  ;  and  when  he  left  the  limits  of  Pales¬ 
tine  on  a  single  occasion,  he  declared  himself  as  only 
going  into  Phoenicia  to  seek  after  the  lost  sheep  of  the 
house  of  Israel.  But  he  stated  that  he  had  other  sheep, 
not  of  this  fold,  whom  he  must  bring,  recognizing  that 
there  were,  among  the  heathen,  good  and  honest  hearts 


10 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


prepared  for  Christianity,  and  already  belonging  to  him ; 
sheep  who  knew  his  voice  and  were  ready  to  follow  him. 
He  also  declared  that  the  Eoman  centurion  and  the  Phoe¬ 
nician  woman  already  possessed  great  faith,  the  centurion 
more  than  he  had  yet  found  in  Israel.  But  the  most 
striking  declaration  of  Jesus,  and  one  singularly  over¬ 
looked,  concerning  the  character  of  the  heathen,  is  to  be 
found  in  his  description  of  the  day  of  judgment,  in  Mat¬ 
thew  (chap.  xxv.).  It  is  very  curious  that  men  should 
speculate  as  to  the  fate  of  the  heathen,  when  Jesus  has 
here  distinctly  taught  that  all  good  men  among  them 
are  his  sheep,  though  they  never  heard  of  him.  The  ac¬ 
count  begins,  “  Before  him  shall  be  gathered  all  the  Gen¬ 
tiles  ”  (or  heathen).  It  is  not  a  description  of  the  judg¬ 
ment  of  the  Christian  world,  but  of  the  heathen  world. 
The  word  here  used  (ja  e6vrj)  occurs  about  one  hundred 
and  sixty-four  times  in  the  Hew  Testament.  It  is  trans¬ 
lated  “  gentiles  ”  oftener  than  by  any  other  word,  that  is, 
about  ninety-three  times  ;  by  “  heathen  ”  four  or  five  times  ; 
and  in  the  remaining  passages  it  is  mostly  translated 
“  nations.”  That  it  means  the  Gentiles  or  heathen  here 
appears  from  the  fact  that  they  are  represented  as  ignorant 
of  Christ,  and  are  judged,  not  by  the  standard  of  Christian 
faith,  but  by  their  humanity  and  charity  toward  those  in 
suffering.  Jesus  recognizes,  therefore,  among  these  ethnic 
or  heathen  people,  some  as  belonging  to  himself,  —  the 
“  other  sheep,”  not  of  the  Jewish  fold. 

The  Apostle  Paul,  who  was  especially  commissioned  to 
the  Gentiles,  must  be  considered  as  the  best  authority 
upon  this  question.  Did  he  regard  their  religions  as 
wholly  false  ?  On  the  contrary,  he  tells  the  Athenians 
that  they  are  already  worshipping  the  true  God,  though 
ignorantly.  “  Whom  ye  ignorantly  worship,  Him  declare  I 
unto  you.”  When  he  said  this  he  was  standing  face  to 
face  with  all  that  was  most  imposing  in  the  religion  of 
Greece.  He  saw  the  city  filled  with  idols,  majestic  forms, 
the  perfection  of  artistic  grace  and  beauty.  Was  his 
spirit  then  moved  only  with  indignation  against  this  wor¬ 
ship,  and  had  he  no  sympathy  with  the  spiritual  needs 
which  it  expressed  ?  It  does  not  seem  so.  He  recognized 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 


11 


piety  in  tlieir  souls.  “  I  see  that  ye  are,  in  all  ways,  ex¬ 
ceedingly  pious.”  He  recognized  their  worship  as  passing 
beyond  the  idols,  to  the  true  God.  He  did  not  profess 
that  he  came  to  revolutionize  their  religion,  hut  to  reform 
it.  He  does  not  proceed  like  the  backwoodsman,  who 
fells  the  forest  and  takes  out  the  stumps  in  order  to  plant 
a  wholly  different  crop  ;  but  like  the  nurseryman,  who 
grafts  a  native  stock  with  a  better  fruit.  They  were  al¬ 
ready  ignorantly  worshipping  the  true  God.  What  the 
apostle  proposed  to  do  was  to  enlighten  that  ignorance  by 
showing  them  who  that  true  God  was,  and  what  was  his 
character.  In  his  subsequent  remarks,  therefore,  he  does 
not  teach  them  that  there  is  one  Supreme  Being,  but  he 
assumes  it,  as  something  already  believed.  He  assumes 
him  to  be  the  creator  of  all  things  ;  to  be  omnipotent,  — 
“  the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth  ”  ;  spiritual,  —  “  dwelleth 
not  in  temples  made  with  hands  ”  ;  absolute,  —  “  not  need¬ 
ing  anything,”  but  the  source  of  all  things.  He  says  this, 
as  not  expecting  any  opposition  or  contradiction ;  he  re¬ 
serves  his  criticisms  on  their  idolatry  for  the  end  of  his 
discourse.  He  then  states,  quite  clearly,  that  the  different 
nations  of  the  world  have  a  common  origin,  belong  to  one 
family,  and  have  been  providentially  placed  in  space  and 
time,  that  each  might  seek  the  Lord  in  its  own  way.  He 
recognized  in  them  a  power  of  seeking  and  finding  God, 
the  God  close  at  hand,  and  in  whom  we  live ;  and  he 
quotes  one  of  their  own  poets,  accepting  his  statement  of 
God’s  fatherly  character.  How,  it  is  quite  common  for 
those  who  deny  that  there  is  any  truth  in  heathenism,  to 
admire  this  speech  of  Paul  as  a  masterpiece  of  ingenuity 
and  eloquence.  But  he  would  hardly  have  made  it,  un¬ 
less  he  thought  it  to  be  true.  Those  who  praise  his 
eloquence  at  the  expense  of  his  veracity  pay  him  a  poor 
compliment.  Did  Paul  tell  the  Athenians  that  they  were 
worshipping  the  true  God  when  they  were  not,  and  that 
for  the  sake  of  rhetorical  effect  ?  If  we  believe  this  con¬ 
cerning  him,  and  yet  admire  him,  let  us  cease  henceforth 
to  find  fault  with  the  Jesuits. 

Ho !  Paul  believed  what  he  said,  that  the  Athenians 
were  worshipping  the  true  God,  though  ignorantly.  The 


12 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


sentiment  of  reverence,  of  worship,  was  lifting  them  to 
its  true  object.  All  they  needed  was  to  have  their  un¬ 
derstanding  enlightened.  Truth  he  placed  in  the  heart 
rather  than  the  understanding,  but  he  also  connected 
Christianity  with  Polytheism  where  the  two  religions 
touched,  that  is,  on  their  pantheistic  side.  While  placing 
God  above  the  world  as  its  ruler,  “  seeing  he  is  Lord  of 
heaven  and  earth,”  he  placed  him  in  the  world  as  an  im¬ 
manent  presence, — "in  him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have 
our  being.”  And  afterward,  in  writing  to  the  Bomans, 
he  takes  the  same  ground.  He  teaches  that  the  Gentiles 
had  a  knowledge  of  the  eternal  attributes  of  God  (Bom.  i. 
19)  and  saw  him  in  his  works  (v.  20),  and  that  they  also 
had  in  their  nature  a  law  of  duty,  enabling  them  to  do 
the  things  contained  in  the  law.  This  he  calls  “  the  law 
written  in  the  heart  ”  (Bom.  ii.  14, 15).  He  blames  them, 
not  for  ignorance,  but  for  disobedience.  The  Apostle 
Paul,  therefore,  agrees  with  us  in  finding  in  heathen  re¬ 
ligions  essential  truth  in  connection  with  their  errors. 

The  early  Christian  apologists  often  took  the  same 
view.  Thus  Clement  of  Alexandria  believed  that  God 
had  one  great  plan  for  educating  the  world,  of  which 
Christianity  was  the  final  step.  He  refused  to  consider 
the  Jewish  religion  as  the  only  divine  preparation  for 
Christianity,  but  regarded  the  Greek  philosophy  as  also 
a  preparation  for  Christ.  Neander  gives  his  views  at 
length,  and  says  that  Clement  was  the  founder  of  the 
true  view  of  history.*  Tertullian  declared  the  soul  to  be 
naturally  Christian.  The  Sibylline  books  were  quoted  as 
good  prophetic  works  along  with  the  Jewish  prophets. 
Socrates  was  called  by  the  Bathers  a  Christian  before 
Christ. 

Within  the  last  few  years  the  extravagant  condemna¬ 
tion  of  the  heathen  religions  has  produced  a  reaction  in 
their  favor.  It  has  been  felt  to  be  disparaging  to  human 
nature  to  suppose  that  almost  the  whole  human  race 
should  consent  to  be  fed  on  error.  Such  a  belief  has  been 
seen  to  be  a  denial  of  God’s  providence,  as  regards  nine 
tenths  of  mankind.  Accordingly  it  has  become  more 

*  Neander,  Church  History,  Yol.  I.  p.  540  (Am.  ed.). 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 


13 


usual  of  late  to  rehabilitate  heathenism,  and  to  place  it 
on  the  same  level  with  Christianity,  if  not  above  it.  The 
Vedas  are  talked  about  as  though  they  were  somewhat 
superior  to  the  Old  Testament,  and  Confucius  is  quoted 
as  an  authority  quite  equal  to  Paul  or  J ohn.  An  igno¬ 
rant  admiration  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  Buddhists 
and  Brahmins  has  succeeded  to  the  former  ignorant  and 
sweeping  condemnation  of  them.  What  is  now  needed 
is  a  fair  and  candid  examination  and  comparison  of  these 
systems  from  reliable  sources. 

§  5.  Comparative  Theology  will  furnish  a  new  Class  of 
Evidences  in  Support  of  Christianity. 

Such  an  examination,  doing  full  justice  to  all  other 
religions,  acknowledging  their  partial  truth  and  use,  will 
not  depreciate,  but  exalt  the  value  of  Christianity.  It 
will  furnish  a  new  kind  of  evidence  in  its  favor.  But 
the  usual  form  of  argument  may  perhaps  be  changed. 

Is  Christianity  a  supernatural  or  a  natural  religion  ? 
Is  it  a  religion  attested  to  be  from  God  by  miracles  ? 
This  has  been  the  great  question  in  evidences  for  the 
last  century.  The  truth  and  divine  origin  of  Christianity 
have  been  made  to  depend  on  its  supernatural  character, 
and  to  stand  or  fall  with  a  certain  view  of  miracles.  And 
then,  in  order  to  maintain  the  reality  of  miracles,  it  became 
necessary  to  prove  the  infallibility  of  the  record ;  and  so 
we  were  taught  that,  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  we  must 
first  believe  in  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the 
whole  New  Testament.  “All  the  theology  of  England,” 
says  Mr.  Pattison,*  “  was  devoted  to  proving  the  Chris¬ 
tian  religion  credible,  in  this  manner.”  “  The  apostles,” 
said  Dr.  Johnson,  “were  being  tried  one  a  week  for 
the  capital  crime  of  forgery.”  This  was  the  work  of  the 
school  of  Lardner,  Paley,  and  Whately. 

But  the  real  question  between  Christians  and  un¬ 
believers  in  Christianity  is,  not  whether  our  religion  is 
or  is  not  supernatural;  not  whether  Christ’s  miracles 
were  or  not  violations  of  law;  nor  whether  the  New 

Essays  and  Reviews,  Article  VI. 


14 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Testament,  as  it  stands,  is  the  work  of  inspired  men. 
The  main  question,  back  of  all  these,  is  different,  and 
not  dependent  on  the  views  we  may  happen  to  take  of 
the  universality  of  law.  It  is  this :  Is  Christianity,  as 
taught  by  Jesus,  intended  by  God  to  be  the  religion  of 
the  human  race  ?  Is  it  only  one  among  natural  religions  ? 
is  it  to  be  superseded  in  its  turn  by  others,  or  is  it  the 
one  religion  which  is  to  unite  all  mankind  ?  “Art  thou 
he  that  should  come,  or  look  we  for  another  ?  ”  This  is  the 
question  which  we  ask  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  the 
answer  to  which  makes  the  real  problem  of  apologetic 
theology. 

Now  the  defenders  of  Christianity  have  been  so  occu¬ 
pied  with  their  special  disputes  about  miracles,  about 
naturalism  and  supernaturalism,  and  about  the  inspira¬ 
tion  and  infallibility  of  the  apostles,  that  they  have  left 
uncultivated  the  wide  field  of  inquiry  belonging  to  Com¬ 
parative  Theology.  But  it  belongs  to  this  science  to 
establish  the  truth  of  Christianity  by  showing  that  it 
possesses  all  the  aptitudes  which  fit  it  to  be  the  religion 
of  the  human  race. 

This  method  of  establishing  Christianity  differs  from 
the  traditional  argument  in  this :  that,  while  the  last 
undertakes  to  prove  Christianity  to  be  true,  this  shows  it 
to  be  true.  For  if  we  can  make  it  appear,  by  a  fair  sur¬ 
vey  of  the  principal  religions  of  the  world,  that,  while 
they  are  ethnic  or  local,  Christianity  is  catholic  or  uni¬ 
versal;  that,  while  they  are  defective,  possessing  some 
truths  and  wanting  others,  Christianity  possesses  all ;  and 
that,  while  they  are  stationary,  Christianity  is  progressive  ; 
it  will  not  then  be  necessary  to  discuss  in  what  sense  it 
is  a  supernatural  religion.  Such  a  survey  will  show  that 
it  is  adapted  to  the  nature  of  man.  When  we  see  adap¬ 
tation  we  naturally  infer  design.  If  Christianity  appears, 
after  a  full  comparison  with  other  religions,  to  be  the 
one  and  only  religion  which  is  perfectly  adapted  to  man, 
it  will  be  impossible  to  doubt  that  it  was  designed  by 
God  to  be  the  religion  of  our  race ;  that  it  is  the  provi¬ 
dential  religion  sent  by  God  to  man,  its  truth  God’s  truth, 
its  way  the  way  to  God  and  to  heaven. 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 


15 


§  6.  It  will  show  that,  while  most  of  the  Religions  of  the 
World  arc  Ethnic,  or  the  Religions  of  Races,  Christianity 
is  Catholic,  or  adapted  to  become  the  Religion  of  alt  Races. 

By  ethnic  religions  we  mean  those  religions,  each  of 
which  has  always  been  confined  within  the  boundaries 
of  a  particular  race  or  family  of  mankind,  and  has  never 
made  proselytes  or  converts,  except  accidentally,  outside 
of  it.  By  catholic  religions  we  mean  those  which  have 
shown  the  desire  and  power  of  passing  over  these  limits, 
and  becoming  the  religion  of  a  considerable  number  of 
persons  belonging  to  different  races. 

Now  we  are  met  at  once  with  the  striking  and  obvious 
fact,  that  most  of  the  religions  of  the  world  are  evidently 
religions  limited  in  some  way  to  particular  races  or  na¬ 
tions.  They  are,  as  we  have  said,  ethnic.  We  use  this 
Greek  word  rather  than  its  Latin  equivalent,  gentile,  be¬ 
cause  gentile,  though  meaning  literally  “  of,  or  belonging 
to,  a  race,”  has  acquired  a  special  sense  from  its  New 
Testament  use  as  meaning  all  who  are  not  Jews.  The 
word  “  ethnic  ”  remains  pure  from  any  such  secondary  or 
acquired  meaning,  and  signifies  simply  that  which  belongs 
to  a  race. 

The  science  of  ethnology  is  a  modern  one,  and  is  still  in 
the  process  of  formation.  Some  of  its  conclusions,  how¬ 
ever,  may  he  considered  as  established.  It  has  forever  set 
aside  Blumenbach’s  old  classification  of  mankind  into  the 
Caucasian  and  four  other  varieties,  and  has  given  us,  in¬ 
stead,  a  division  of  the  largest  part  of  mankind  into  Indo- 
European,  Semitic,  and  Turanian  families,  leaving  a  con¬ 
siderable  penumbra  outside  as  yet  unclassified. 

That  mankind  is  so  divided  into  races  of  men  it  would 
seem  hardly  possible  to  deny.  It  is  proved  by  physi¬ 
ology,  by  psychology,  by  glossology,  and  by  civil  history. 
Physiology  shows  us  anatomical  differences  between  races. 
There  are  as  marked  and  real  differences  between  the 
skull  of  a  Hindoo  and  that  of  a  Chinaman  as  between  the 
skulls  of  an  Englishman  and  a  negro.  There  is  not  as 
great  a  difference,  perhaps,  but  it  is  as  real  and  as  constant. 
Then  the  characters  of  races  remain  distinct,  the  same 


1 6 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


traits  reappearing  after  many  centuries  exactly  as  at  first. 
We  find  the  same  difference  of  character  between  the 
Jews  and  Arabs,  who  are  merely  different  families  of  the 
same  Semitic  race,  as  existed  between  their  ancestors, 
Jacob  and  Esau,  as  described  in  the  Book  of  Genesis. 
Jacob  and  the  Jews  are  prudent,  loving  trade,  money¬ 
making,  tenacious  of  their  ideas,  living  in  cities ;  Esau 
and  the  Arabs,  careless,  wild,  hating  cities,  loving  the 
desert. 

A  similar  example  of  the  maintaining  of  a  moral  type  is 
found  in  the  characteristic  differences  between  the  German 
and  Kelts,  two  families  of  the  same  Indo-European  race. 
Take  an  Irishman  and  a  German,  working  side  by  side 
on  the  Mississippi,  and  they  present  the  same  characteris¬ 
tic  differences  as  the  Germans  and  Kelts  described  by 
Tacitus  and  Caesar.  The  German  loves  liberty,  the  Kelt 
equality ;  the  one  hates  the  tyrant,  the  other  the  aristo¬ 
crat  ;  the  one  is  a  serious  thinker,  the  other  a  quick  and 
vivid  thinker ;  the  one  is  a  Protestant  in  religion,  the 
other  a  Catholic.  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  living  in  Gaul 
in  the  fourth  century,  describes  the  Kelts  thus  (see 
whether  it  does  not  apply  to  the  race  now). 

“  The  Gauls,”  says  lie,  “  are  mostly  tall  of  stature,*  fair 
and  red-haired,  and  horrible  from  the  fierceness  of  their 
eyes,  fond  of  strife,  and  haughtily  insolent.  A  whole 
band  of  strangers  would  not  endure  one  of  them,  aided  in 
his  brawl  by  his  powerful  and  blue-eyed  wife,  especially 
when  with  swollen  neck  and  gnashing  teeth,  poising  her 
huge  white  arms,  she  begins,  joining  kicks  to  blows,  to  put 
forth  her  fists  like  stones  from  a  catapult.  Most  of  their 
voices  are  terrific  and  threatening,  as  well  when  they  are 
quiet  as  when  they  are  angry.  All  ages  are  thought  fit 
for  war.  They  are  a  nation  very  fond  of  wine,  and  invent 
many  drinks  resembling  it,  and  some  of  the  poorer  sort 
wander  about  with  their  senses  quite  blunted  by  continual 
intoxication.” 

Kow  we  find  that  each  race,  beside  its  special  moral 
qualities,  seems  also  to  have  special  religious  qualities, 
which  cause  it  to  tend  toward  some  one  kind  of  religion 

*  In  this  respect  the  type  has  changed. 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 


17 


more  tlian  to  another  kind.  These  religions  are  the  flower 
of  the  race ;  they  come  forth  from  it  as  its  best  aroma. 
Thus  we  see  that  Brahmanism  is  confined  to  that  section 
or  race  of  the  great  Aryan  family  which  has  occupied 
India  for  more  than  thirty  centuries.  It  belongs  to  the 
Hindoos,  to  the  people  taking  its  name  from  the  Indus, 
by  the  tributaries  of  which  stream  it  entered  India  from 
the  northwest.  It  has  never  attempted  to  extend  itself 
beyond  that  particular  variety  of  mankind.  Perhaps  one 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  men  accept  it  as  their  faith. 
It  has  been  held  by  this  race  as  their  religion  during  a 
period  immense  in  the  history  of  mankind.  Its  sacred 
books  are  certainly  more  than  three  thousand  years  old. 
But  during  all  this  time  it  has  never  communicated  it- 
self  to  any  race  of  men  outside  of  the  peninsula  of  India. 
It  is  thus  seen  to  be  a  strictly  ethnic  religion,  showing 
neither  the  tendency  nor  the  desire  to  become  the  religion 
of  mankind. 

The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  the  religion  of  Con¬ 
fucius.  It  belongs  to  China  and  the  Chinese.  It  suits 
their  taste  and  genius.  They  have  had  it  as  their  state 
religion  for  some  twenty-three  hundred  years,  and  it  rules 
the  opinions  of  the  rulers  of  opinion  among  three  hun¬ 
dred  millions  of  men.  But  out  of  China  Confucius  is  only 
a  name. 

So,  too,  of  the  system  of  Zoroaster.  It  was  for  a  long 
period  the  religion  of  an  Aryan  tribe  who  became  the 
ruling  people  among  mankind.  The  Persians  extended 
themselves  through  Western  Asia,  and  conquered  many 
nations,  but  they  never  communicated  their  religion.  It 
was  strictly  a  national  or  ethnic  religion,  belonging  only 
to  the  Iranians  and  their  descendants,  the  Parsees. 

In  like  manner  it  may  be  said  that  the  religion  of 
Egypt,  of  Greece,  of  Scandinavia,  of  the  Jews,  of  Islam, 
and  of  Buddhism  are  ethnic  religions.  Those  of  Egypt  and 
Scandinavia  are  strictly  so.  It  is  said,  to  be  sure,  that  the 
Greeks  borrowed  the  names  of  their  gods  from  Egypt,  but 
the  gods  themselves  were  entirely  different  ones.  It  is  also 
true  that  some  of  the  gods  of  the  Romans  were  borrowed! 
from  the  Greeks,  but  their  life  was  left  behind.  They7 

B 


18 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


merely  repeated  by  rote  the  Greek  mythology,  having  no 
power  to  invent  one  for  themselves.  But  the  Greek  re¬ 
ligion  they  never  received.  For  instead  of  its  fair  humani¬ 
ties,  the  ltoman  gods  were  only  servants  of  the  state,  —  a 
higher  kind  of  consuls,  tribunes,  and  lictors.  The  real 
Olympus  of  Borne  was  the  Senate  Chamber  on  the  Capi- 
toline  Hill.  Judaism  also  was  in  reality  an  ethnic  reli¬ 
gion,  though  it  aimed  at  catholicity  and  expected  it,  and 
made  proselytes.  But  it  could  not  tolerate  unessentials, 
and  so  failed  of  becoming  catholic.  The  Jewish  religion, 
until  it  had  Christianity  to  help  it,  was  never  able  to  do 
more  than  make  proselytes  here  and  there.  Christianity, 
while  preaching  the  doctrines  of  Jesus  and  the  New  Tes¬ 
tament,  lias  been  able  to  carry  also  the  weight  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  to  give  a  certain  catholicity  to  Judaism. 
The  religion  of  Mohammed  has  been  catholic,  in  that  it 
has  become  the  religion  of  very  different  races,  —  the 
Arabs,  Turks,  and  Persians,  belonging  to  the  three  great 
varieties  of  the  human  family.  But  then  Mohammedan¬ 
ism  has  never  sought  to  make  converts ,  but  only  subjects ; 
it  has  not  asked  for  belief,  but  merely  for  submission. 
Consequently  Mr.  Palgrave,  Mr.  Lane,  and  Mr.  Vambery 
tell  us,  that,  in  Arabia,  Egypt,  and  Turkistan,  there  are 
multitudes  who  are  outwardly  Mohammedan,  but  who  in 
their  private  belief  reject  Mohammed,  and  are  really 
Pagans.  But,  no  doubt,  there  is  a  catholic  tendency  both 
in  J udaism  and  Mohammedanism ;  and  this  comes  from 
the  great  doctrine  which  they  hold  in  common  with  Chris¬ 
tianity,  —  the  unity  of  God.  Faith  in  that  is  the  basis  of 
all  expectation  of  a  universal  religion,  and  the  wish  and 
the  power  to  convert  others  come  from  that  doctrine  of 
the  Divine  unity. 

But  Christianity  teaches  the  unity  of  God  not  merely 
as  a  supremacy  of  power  and  will,  but  as  a  supremacy  of 
love  and  wisdom ;  it  teaches  God  as  Father,  and  not 
merely  as  King ;  so  it  seeks  not  merely  to  make  prose¬ 
lytes  and  subjects,  but  to  make  converts.  Hence  Chris¬ 
tianity,  beginning  as  a  Semitic  religion,  among  the  J ews, 
went  across  the  Greek  Archipelago  and  converted  the 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 


19 


Hellenic  and  the  Latin  races  ;  afterward  the  Goths,  Lom¬ 
bards,  Franks,  Vandals  ;  later  still,  the  Saxons,  Danes,  and 
Normans.  Meantime,  its  Nestorian  missionaries,  push¬ 
ing  east,  made  converts  in  Armenia,  Persia,  India,  and 
China.  In  later  days  it  has  converted  negroes,  Indians, 
and  the  people  of  the  Pacific  Islands.  Something,  indeed, 
stopped  its  progress  after  its  first  triumphant  successes 
during  seven  or  eight  centuries.  At  the  tenth  century  it 
reached  its  term.  Modern  missions,  whether  those  of 
Jesuits  or  Protestants,  have  not  converted  whole  nations 
and  races,  hut  only  individuals  here  and  there.  The 
reason  of  this  check,  probably,  is,  that  Christians  have 
repeated  the  mistakes  of  the  Jews  and  Mohammedans. 
They  have  sought  to  make  proselytes  to  an  outward  sys¬ 
tem  of  worship  and  ritual,  or  to  make  subjects  to  a  dogma ; 
but  not  to  make  converts  to  an  idea  and  a  life.  When 
the  Christian  missionaries  shall  go  and  say  to  the  Hin¬ 
doos  or  the  Buddhists  :  “  You  are  already  on  your  way 
toward  God,  —  your  religion  came  from  him,  and  was  in¬ 
spired  by  his  Spirit ;  now  he  sends  you  something  more 
and  higher  by  his  Son,  who  does  not  come  to  destroy  but 
to  fulfil,  not  to  take  away  any  good  thing  you  have,  but  to 
add  to  it  something  better,”  then  we  shall  see  the  process 
of  conversion,  checked  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries, 
reinaugurated. 

J udaism,  Islam,  and  Christianity,  all  teaching  the  strict 
unity  of  God,  have  all  aimed  at  becoming  universal.  Juda¬ 
ism  failed  because  it  sought  proselytes  instead  of  making 
converts.  Islam,  the  religion  of  Mohammed  (in  reality  a 
Judaizing  Christian  sect)  failed  because  it  sought  to  make 
subjects  rather  than  converts.  Its  conquests  over  a  variety 
of  races  were  extensive,  but  not  deep.  To-day  it  holds  in 
its  embrace  at  least  four  very  distinct  races,  —  the  Arabs, 
a  Semitic  race,  the  Persians,  an  Indo-European  race,  the 
Negroes,  and  the  Turks  or  Turanians.  But,  correctly 
viewed,  Islam  is  only  a  heretical  Christian  sect,  and  so  all 
this  must  be  credited  to  the  interest  of  Christianity.  Islam 
is  a  J ohn  the  Baptist  crying  in  the  wilderness,  “  Prepare  the 
way  of  the  Lord  ”  ;  Mohammed  is  a  schoolmaster  to  bring 
men  to  Christ.  It  does  for  the  nations  just  what  Judaism 


20 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


did,  that  is,  it  teaches  the  Divine  unity.  Esau  has  taken 
the  place  of  Jacob  in  the  economy  of  Providence.  When 
the  Jews  rejected  Christ  they  ceased  from  their  providen¬ 
tial  work,  and  their  cousins,  the  Arabs,  took  their  place. 
The  conquests  of  Islam,  therefore,  ought  to  he  regarded 
as  the  preliminary  conquests  of  Christianity. 

There  is  still  another  system  which  has  shown  some 
tendencies  toward  catholicity.  This  is  Buddhism,  which 
has  extended  itself  over  the  whole  of  the  eastern  half  of 
Asia.  But  though  it  includes  a  variety  of  nationalities, 
it  is  doubtful  if  it  includes  any  variety  of  races.  All  the 
Buddhists  appear  to  belong  to  the  great  Mongol  family. 
And  although  this  system  originated  among  the  Aryan 
race  in  India,  it  has  let  go  its  hold  of  that  family  and 
transferred  itself  wholly  to  the  Mongols. 

But  Christianity,  from  the  first,  showed  itself  capable 
of  taking  possession  of  the  convictions  of  the  most  differ¬ 
ent  races  of  mankind.  1ST ow,  as  on  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
many  races  hear  the  apostles  speak  in  their  own  tongues, 
in  which  they  were  born,  —  Parthians,  Medes,  Elamites, 
dwellers  in  Mesopotamia,  Judsea,  and  Cappadocia,  Pontus 
and  Asia,  Phrygia  and  Pamphylia,  Egypt  and  the  parts 
of  Lybia  about  Cyrene,  strangers  of  Rome,  Cretes  and 
Arabians.  The  miracle  of  tongues  was  a  type  of  the 
effect  of  the  truth  in  penetrating  the  mind  and  heart 
of  different  nationalities.  The  Jewish  Christians,  indeed, 
tried  to  repeat  in  Christianity  their  old  mistake  which 
had  prevented  Judaism  from  becoming  universal.  They 
wished  to  insist  that  no  one  should  become  a  Christian 
unless  he  became  a  Jew  at  the  same  time.  If  they  had 
succeeded  in  this,  they  would  have  effectually  kept  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  from  becoming  a  catholic  religion.  But 
the  Apostle  Paul  was  raised  up  for  the  emergency,  and 
he  prevented  this  suicidal  course.  Consequently  Chris¬ 
tianity  passed  at  once  into  Europe,  and  became  the  religion 
of  Greeks  and  Romans  as  well  as  Jews.  Paul  struck  off 
from  it  its  Jewish  shell,  told  them  that  as  Christians  they 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Jewish  law,  or  with  Jewish 
Passovers,  Sabbaths,  or  ceremonies.  As  Christians  they 
were  only  to  know  Christ,  and  they  were  not  to  know 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  KELIGIONS. 


21 


him  according  to  the  flesh,  that  is,  not  as  a  Jew.  So 
Christianity  became  at  once  a  catholic  religion,  consisting 
in  the  diffusion  of  great  truths  and  a  divine  life.  It  over¬ 
flowed  the  nationalities  of  Greece  and  Rome,  of  North 
Africa,  of  Persia  and  Western  Asia,  at  the  very  beginning. 

It  conquered  the  Gothic  and  German  conquerors  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  Under  Arian  missionaries,  it  converted 
Goths,  Vandals,  Lombards.  Under  Nestorian  mission¬ 
aries,  it  penetrated  as  far  east  as  China,  and  made  converts 
there.  In  like  manner  the  Gospel  spread  over  the  whole 
of  North  Africa,  whence  it  was  afterwards  expelled  by 
the  power  of  Islam.  It  has  shown  itself,  therefore,  capa¬ 
ble  of  adapting  itself  to  every  variety  of  the  human  race. 

§  7.  Comparative  Theology  will  probably  show  that  the  Eth¬ 
nic  Religions  are  one-sided,  each  containing  a  Truth  of 
its  own,  but  being  defective,  wanting  some  corresponding 
Truth.  Christianity,  or  the  Catholic  Religion ,  is  complete 
on  every  Side. 

Brahmanism,  for  example,  is  complete  on  the  side  of 
spirit,  defective  on  the  side  of  matter ;  full  as  regards  the 
infinite,  empty  of  the  finite ;  recognizing  eternity  but  not 
time,  God  but  not  nature.  It  is  a  vast  system  of  spiritual 
pantheism,  in  which  there  is  no  reality  but  God,  all  else  • 
being  Maya,  or  illusion.  The  Hindoo  mind  is  singularly 
pious,  but  also  singularly  immoral.  It  has  no  history,  for 
history  belongs  to  time.  No  one  knows  when  its  sacred 
books  were  written,  when  its  civilization  began,  what 
caused  its  progress,  what  its  decline.  Gentle,  devout, 
abstract,  it  is  capable  at  once  of  the  loftiest  thoughts  and 
the  basest  actions.  It  combines  the  most  ascetic  self- 
denials  and  abstraction  from  life  with  the  most  voluptu¬ 
ous  self-indulgence.  The  key  to  the  whole  system  of  Hin¬ 
doo  thought  and  life  is  in  this  original  tendency  to  see  God, 
not  man  ;  eternity,  not  time  ;  the  infinite,  not  the  finite. 

Buddhism,  which  was  a  revolt  from  Brahmanism,  has  ex¬ 
actly  the  opposite  truths  and  the  opposite  defects.  Where 
Brahmanism  is  strong,  it  is  weak ;  where  Brahmanism  is 
weak,  it  is  strong.  It  recognizes  man,  not  God ;  the  soul. 


22 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


not  the  all ;  the  finite,  not  the  infinite ;  morality,  not  piety. 
Its  only  God,  Buddha,  is  a  man  who  has  passed  on  through 
innumerable  transmigrations,  till,  by  means  of  exemplary 
virtues,  he  has  reached  the  lordship  of  the  universe.  Its 
heaven,  Nirvana,  is  indeed  the  world  of  infinite  bliss  ;  but, 
incapable  of  cognizing  the  infinite,  it  calls  it  nothing. 
Heaven,  being  the  inconceivable  infinite,  is  equivalent  to 
pure  negation.  Nature,  to  the  Buddhist,  instead  of  being 
the  delusive  shadow  of  God,  as  the  Brahman  views  it,  is 
envisaged  as  a  nexus  of  laws,  which  reward  and  punish 
impartially  both  obedience  and  disobedience. 

The  system  of  Confucius  has  many  merits,  especially 
in  its  influence  on  society.  The  most  conservative  of  all 
systems,  and  also  the  most  prosaic,  its  essential  virtue  is 
reverence  for  all  that  is.  It  is  not  perplexed  by  any  fear  or 
hope  of  change ;  the  thing  which  has  been  is  that  which 
shall  be  ;  and  the  very  idea  of  progress  is  eliminated  from 
the  thought  of  China,  Safety,  repose,  peace,  these  are 
its  blessings.  Probably  merely  physical  comfort,  earthly 
bien-etrc,  was  never  carried  further  than  in  the  Celestial 
Empire.  That  virtue  so  much  exploded  in  Western  civ¬ 
ilization,  of  respect  for  parents,  remains  in  full  force  in 
China.  The  emperor  is  honored  as  the  father  of  his  peo¬ 
ple  ;  ancestors  are  worshipped  in  every  family ;  and  the 
best  reward  offered  for  a  good  action  is  a  patent  of  nobil¬ 
ity,  which  does  not  reach  forward  to  one’s  children,  but 
backward  to  one’s  parents.  This  is  the  bright  side  of 
Chinese  life ;  the  dark  side  is  the  fearful  ennui,  the  moral 
death,  which  falls  on  a  people  among  whom  there  are  no 
such  things  as  hope,  expectation,  or  the  sense  of  progress. 
Hence  the  habit  of  suicide  among  this  people,  indicating 
their  small  hold  on  life.  In  every  Chinese  drama  there 
are  two  or  three  suicides.  A  soldier  will  commit  suicide 
rather  than  go  into  battle.  If  you  displease  a  Chinaman, 
he  will  resent  the  offence  by  killing  himself  on  your  door¬ 
step,  hoping  thus  to  give  you  some  inconvenience.  Such 
are  the  merits  and  such  the  defects  of  the  system  of  Con¬ 
fucius. 

The  doctrine  of  Zoroaster  and  of  the  Zend  Avesta  is  far 
nobler.  Its  central  thought  is  that  each  man  is  a  soldier, 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  KELIGIONS. 


23 


bound  to  battle  for  good  against  evil.  The  world,  at  the 
present  time,  is  the  scene  of  a  great  warfare  between  the 
hosts  of  light  and  those  of  darkness.  Every,  man  who 
thinks  purely,  speaks  purely,  and  acts  purely  is  a  servant 
of  Ormazd,  the  king  of  light,  and  thereby  helps  on  his 
cause.  The  result  of  this  doctrine  was  that  wonderful 
Persian  empire,  which  astonished  the  world  for  cen¬ 
turies  by  its  brilliant  successes ;  and  the  virtue  and  intel¬ 
ligence  of  the  Parsees  of  the  present  time,  the  only 
representatives  in  the  world  of  that  venerable  religion. 
The  one  thing  lacking  to  the  system  is  unity.  It  lives  in 
perpetual  conflict.  Its  virtues  are  all  the  virtues  of  a 
soldier.  Its  defects  and  merits  are,  both,  the  polar  op- 
posites  of  those  of  China.  If  the  everlasting  peace  of 
China  tends  to  moral  stagnation  and  death,  the  perpetual 
struggle  and  conflict  of  Persia  tends  to  exhaustion.  The 
Persian  empire  rushed  through  a  short  career  of  flame 
to  its  tomb ;  the  Chinese  empire  vegetates,  unchanged, 
through  a  myriad  of  years. 

If  Brahmanism  and  Buddhism  occupy  the  opposite 
poles  of  the  same  axis  of  thought,  —  if  the  system  of 
Confucius  stands  opposed,  on  another  axis,  to  that  of 
Zoroaster,  —  we  find  a  third  development  of  like  polar 
antagonisms  in  the  systems  of  ancient  Egypt  and  Greece. 
Egypt  stands  for  Nature ;  Greece  for  Man.  Inscrutable 
as  is  the  mystery  of  that  Sphinx  of  the  Nile,  the  old 
religion  of  Egypt,  we  can  yet  trace  some  phases  of  its 
secret.  Its  reverence  for  organization  appears  in  the  prac¬ 
tice  of  embalming.  The  bodies  of  men  and  of  animals 
seemed  to  it  to  be  divine.  Even  vegetable  organization 
had  something  sacred  in  it :  “  0  holy  nation,”  said  the 
Eoman  satirist,  “  whose  gods  grow  in  gardens !  ”  That 
plastic  force  of  nature  which  appears  in  organic  life  and 
growth  made  up,  in  various  forms,  as  we  shall  see  in  the 
proper  place,  the  Egyptian  Pantheon.  The  life-force  of 
nature  became  divided  into  the  three  groups  of  gods,  the 
highest  of  which  represented  its  largest  generalizations. 
Kneph,  Neith,  Sevech,  Pascht,  are  symbols,  according  to 
Lepsius,  of  the  World-Spirit,  the  World-Matter,  Space 


24 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


and  Time.  Each  circle  of  the  gods  shows  us  some  work¬ 
ing  of  the  mysterious  powers  of  nature,  and  of  its  occult 
laws.  But  when  we  come  to  Greece,  these  personified 
laws  turn  into  men.  Everything  in  the  Greek  Pantheon 
is  human.  All  human  tendencies  appear  transfigured 
into  glowing  forms  of  light  on  Mount  Olympus.  The 
gods  of  Egypt  are  powers  and  laws ;  those  of  Greece  are 
persons. 

The  opposite  tendencies  of  these  antagonist  forms  of 
piety  appear  in  the  development  of  Egyptian  and  Hel¬ 
lenic  life.  The  gods  of  Egypt  were  mysteries  too  far 
removed  from  the  popular  apprehension  to  be  objects  of 
worship ;  and  so  religion  in  Egypt  became  priestcraft. 
In  Greece,  on  the  other  hand,  the  gods  were  too  familiar, 
too  near  to  the  people,  to  be  worshipped  with  any  real 
reverence.  Partaking  in  all  human  faults  and  vices,  it 
must  sooner  or  later  come  to  pass  that  familiarity  would 
breed  contempt.  And  as  the  religion  of  Egypt  perished 
from  being  kept  away  from  the  people,  as  an  esoteric 
system  in  the  hands  of  priests,  that  of  Greece,  in  which 
there  was  no  priesthood  as  an  order,  came  to  an  end 
because  the  gods  ceased  to  be  objects  of  respect  at  all. 

We  see,  from  these  examples,  how  each  of  the  great 
ethnic  religions  tends  to  a  disproportionate  and  excessive, 
because  one-sided,  statement  of  some  divine  truth  or  law. 
The  question  then  emerges  at  this  point :  “  Is  Chris¬ 
tianity  also  one-sided,  or  does  it  contain  in  itself  all  these 
truths  ?  ”  Is  it  teres  atque  rotunclus,  so  as  to  be  able  to 
meet  every  natural  religion  with  a  kindred  truth,  and 
thus  to  supply  the  defects  of  each  from  its  own  fulness  ? 
If  it  can  be  shown  to  possess  this  amplitude,  it  at  once  is 
placed  by  itself  in  an  order  of  its  own.  It  is  not  to  be 
classified  with  the  other  religions,  since  it  does  not  share 
their  one  family  fault.  In  every  other  instance  we  can 
touch  with  our  finger  the  weak  place,  the  empty  side.  Is 
there  any  such  weak  side  in  Christianity  ?  It  is  the  office 
of  Comparative  Theology  to  answer. 

The  positive  side  of  Brahmanism  we  saw  to  be  its  sense 
of  spiritual  realities.  That  is  also  fully  present  in  Chris- 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 


25 


tianity.  Not  merely  does  this  appear  in  such  New 
Testament  texts  as  these :  “  God  is  spirit,”  “  The  letter 
killeth,  the  spirit  giveth  life  ” :  not  only  does  the  New 
Testament  just  graze  and  escape  Pantheism  in  such 
passages  as  “From  whom,  and  through  whom,  and  to 
whom  are  all  things,”  “  Who  is  above  all,  and  through 
all,  and  in  us  all,”  “  In  him  we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being,”  but  the  whole  history  of  Christianity  is  the 
record  of  a  spiritualism  almost  too  excessive.  It  has 
appeared  in  the  worship  of  the  Church,  the  hymns  of  the 
Church,  the  tendencies  to  asceticism,  the  depreciation 
of  earth  and  man.  Christianity,  therefore,  fully  meets 
Brahmanism  on  its  positive  side,  while  it  fulfils  its  ne¬ 
gations,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  by  adding  as  full  a 
recognition  of  man  and  nature. 

The  positive  side  of  Buddhism  is  its  cognition  of  the 
human  soul  and  the  natural  laws  of  the  universe.  Now, 
if  we  look  into  the  New  Testament  and  into  the  history 
of  the  Church,  we  find  this  element  also  fully  expressed. 
It  appears  in  all  the  parables  and  teachings  of  Jesus,  in 
which  man  is  represented  as  a  responsible  agent,  rewarded 
or  punished  according  to  the  exact  measure  of  his  works ; 
receiving  the  government  of  ten  or  five  cities  according  to 
his  stewardship.  And  when  we  look  into  the  practical 
working  of  Christianity  we  find  almost  an  exaggerated 
stress  laid  on  the  duty  of  saving  one’s  soul.  This  ex¬ 
cessive  estimate  is  chiefly  seen  in  the  monastic  system 
of  the  Roman  Church,  and  in  the  Calvinistic  sects  of 
Protestantism.  It  also  comes  to  light  again,  curiously 
enough,  in  such  books  as  Combe’s  “  Constitution  of  Man,” 
the  theory  of  which  is  exactly  the  same  as  that  of  the 
Buddhists;  namely,  that  the  aim  of  life  is  a  prudential 
virtue,  consisting  in  wise  obedience  to  the  natural  laws 
of  the  universe.  Both  systems  substitute  prudence  for 
Providence  as  the  arbiter  of  human  destiny.  But,  apart 
from,  these  special  tendencies  in  Christianity,  it  cannot 
be  doubted  that  all  Christian  experience  recognizes  the 
positive  truth  of  Buddhism  in  regarding  the  human  soul 
as  a  substantial,  finite,  but  progressive  monad,  not  to  be 

absorbed,  as  in  Brahmanism,  in  the  abyss  of  absolute  being. 

2 


26 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  positive  side  of  the  system  of  Confucius  is  the 
organization  of  the  state  on  the  basis  of  the  family.  The 
government  of  the  emperor  is  paternal  government,  the 
obedience  of  the  subject  is  filial  obedience.  Now,  though 
Jesus  did  not  for  the  first  time  call  God  “  the  Father,” 
he  first  brought  men  into  a  truly  filial  relation  to  God. 
The  Roman  Church  is  organized  on  the  family  idea.  The 
word  “Pope”  means  the  “Father”;  he  is  the  father  of 
the  whole  Church.  Every  bishop  and  every  priest  is  also 
the  father  of  a  smaller  family,  and  all  those  born  into  the 
Church  are  its  children,  as  all  born  into  a  family  are  bora 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  family.  In  Protestantism,  also, 
society  is  composed  of  families  as  the  body  is  made  up  of 
cells.  Only  in  China,  and  in  Christendom,  is  family  life 
thus  sacred  and  worshipful.  In  some  patriarchal  sys¬ 
tems,  polygamy  annuls  the  wife  and  the  mother ;  in 
others  the  father  is  a  despot,  and  the  children  slaves ; 
in  other  systems,  the  crushing  authority  of  the  state 
destroys  the  independence  of  the  household.  Chris¬ 
tianity  alone  accepts  with  China  the  religion  of  family 
life  with  all  its  conservative  elements,  while  it  fulfils  it 
with  the  larger  hope  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and 
brotherhood  of  mankind. 

This  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  so  central  in 
Christianity,  is  also  the  essential  motive  in  the  religion 
of  Zoroaster.  As,  in  the  Zend  Avesta,  every  man  is  a 
soldier,  fighting  for  light  or  for  darkness,  and  neutrality 
is  impossible  ;  so,  in  the  Gospel,  light  and  good  stand 
opposed  to  darkness  and  evil  as  perpetual  foes.  A  cer¬ 
tain  current  of  dualism  runs  through  the '  Christian  Scrip¬ 
tures  and  the  teaching  of  the  Church.  God  and  Satan, 
heaven  and  hell,  are  the  only  alternatives.  Every  one 
must  choose  between  them.  In  the  current  theology,  this 
dualism  has  been  so  emphasized  as  even  to  exceed  that  of 
the  Zend  Avesta,  The  doctrine  of  everlasting  punishment 
and  an  everlasting  hell  has  always  been  the  orthodox  doc¬ 
trine  in  Christianity,  while  the  Zend  Avesta  probably,  and 
the  religion  in  its  subsequent  development  certainly, 
teaches  universal  restoration,  and  the  ultimate  triumph  of 
good  over  evil.  Nevertheless,  practically,  in  consequence 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 


27 


of  the  greater  richness  and  fulness  of  Christianity,  this 
tendency  to  dualism  lias  been  neutralized  by  its  mono¬ 
theism,  and  evil  kept  subordinate ;  while,  in  the  Zend 
religion,  the  evil  principle  assumed  such  proportions  as  to 
make  it  the  formidable  rival  of  good  in  the  mind  of  the 
worshipper.  Here,  as  before,  we  may  say  that  Christianity 
is  able  to  do  justice  to  all  the  truth  involved  in  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  evil,  avoiding  any  superficial  optimism,  and  rec¬ 
ognizing  the  fact  that  all  true  life  must  partake  of  the 
nature  of  a  battle. 

The  positive  side  of  Egyptian  religion  we  saw  to  be  a 
recognition  of  the  divine  element  in  nature,  of  that  plas¬ 
tic,  mysterious  life  which  embodies  itself  in  all  organisms. 
Of  this  view  we  find  little  stated  explicitly  in  the  Hew 
Testament.  But  that  the  principles  of  Christianity  con¬ 
tain  it,  implicitly,  in  an  undeveloped  form,  appears,  (1.) 
Because  Christian  monotheism  differs  from  Jewish  and 
Mohammedan  monotheism,  in  recognizing  God  “in  all 
things  ”  as  well  as  God  “  above  all  things  .”  (2.)  Because 

Christian  art  and  literature  differ  from  classic  art  and 
literature  in  the  romantic  element,  which  is  exactly  the 
sense  of  this  mysterious  life  in  nature.  The  classic  artist 
is  a  noirjTrjs,  a  maker ;  the  romantic  artist  is  a  troubadour, 
a  finder.  The  one  does  his  work  in  giving  form  to  a  dead 
material ;  the  other,  by  seeking  for  its  hidden  life.  (3.) 
Because  modern  science  is  invention ,  i.  e.  finding.  It  recog¬ 
nizes  mysteries  in  nature  which  are  to  be  searched  into, 
and  this  search  becomes  a  serious  religious  interest  with 
all  truly  scientific  men.  It  appears  to  such  men  a  pro¬ 
fanity  to  doubt  or  question  the  revelations  of  nature, 
and  they  believe  in  its  infallible  inspiration  quite  as 
much  as  the  dogmatist  believes  in  the  infallible  inspira¬ 
tion  of  Scripture,  or  the  churchman  in  the  infallible  in¬ 
spiration  of  the  Church.  We  may,  therefore,  say,  that  the 
essential  truth  in  the  Egyptian  system  has  been  taken  up 
into  our  modern  Christian  life. 

And  how  is  it,  lastly,  with  that  opposite  pole  of  re¬ 
ligious  thought  which  blossomed  out  in  “  the  fair  human¬ 
ities  of  old  religion  ”  in  the  wonderful  Hellenic  mind  ? 
The  gods  of  Greece  were  men.  They  were  not  abstract 


28 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


ideas,  concealing  natural  powers  and  laws.  They  were 
open  as  sunshine,  bright  as  noon,  a  fair  company  of  men 
and  women  idealized  and  gracious,  just  a  little  way  off,  a 
little  way  up.  It  was  humanity  projected  upon  the  skies, 
divine  creatures  of  more  than  mortal  beauty,  but  thrill¬ 
ing  with  human  life  and  human  sympathies.  Has  Chris¬ 
tianity  anything  to  offer  in  the  place  of  this  charming 
system  of  human  gods  and  goddesses  ? 

We  answer  that  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  is  the  incarnation,  the  word  made  flesh.  It  is 
God  revealed  in  man.  Under  some  doctrinal  type  this 
has  always  been  believed.  The  common  Trinitarian  doc¬ 
trine  states  it  in  a  somewhat  crude  and  illogical  form. 
Yet  somehow  the  man  Christ  Jesus  has  always  been  seen 
to  be  the  best  revelation  of  God.  But  unless  there  were 
some  human  element  in  the  Deity,  he  could  not  reveal 
himself  so  in  a  human  life.  The  doctrine  of  the  incarna¬ 
tion,  therefore,  repeats  the  Mosaic  statement  that  “  man 
was  made  in  the  image  of  God.”  Jewish  and  Moham¬ 
medan  monotheism  separate  God  entirely  from  the  world. 
Philosophic  monotheism,  in  our  day,  separates  God  from 
man,  by  teaching  that  there  is  nothing  in  common  be¬ 
tween  the  two  by  which  God  can  be  mediated,  and  so 
makes  him  wholly  incomprehensible.  Christianity  gives 
us  Emmanuel,  God  with  us,  equally  removed  from  the 
stern  despotic  omnipotence  of  the  Semitic  monotheism 
and  the  finite  and  imperfect  humanities  of  Olympus. 
We  see  God  in  Christ,  as  full  of  sympathy  with  man,  God 
“  in  us  all  ” ;  and  yet  we  see  him  in  nature,  providence, 
history,  as  “  above  all  ”  and  “  through  all.”  The  Eoman 
Catholic  Church  has,  perhaps,  humanized  religion  too  far. 
Eor  every  god  and  goddess  of  Greece  she  has  given  us,  on 
some  immortal  canvas,  an  archangel  or  a  saint  to  be 
adored  and  loved.  Instead  of  Apollo  and  the  Python 
we  have  Guido’s  St.  Michael  and  the  Dragon ;  in  place 
of  the  light,  airy  Mercury  she  provides  a  St.  Sebastian ; 
instead  of  the  “  untouched  ”  Diana,  some  heavenly  Agnes 
or  Cecilia.  The  Catholic  heaven  is  peopled,  all  the  way 
up,  with  beautiful  human  forms  ;  and  on  the  upper  throne 
we  have  holiness  and  tenderness  incarnate  in  the  queen 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 


29 


of  heaven  and  her  divine  Son.  All  the  Greek  human¬ 
ities  are  thus  fulfilled  in  the  ample  faith  of  Christen¬ 
dom. 

By  such  a  critical  survey  as  we  have  thus  sketched  in 
mere  outline  it  will  he  seen  that  each  of  the  great  ethnic 
religions  is  full  on  one  side,  hut  empty  on  the  other, 
while  Christianity  is  full  all  round.  Christianity  is  adapted 
to  take  their  place,  not  because  they  are  false,  but  be¬ 
cause  they  are  true  as  far  as  they  go.  They  “  know  in 
part  and  prophesy  in  part  ;  but  when  that  which  is  per¬ 
fect  is  come,  then  that  which  is  in  part  shall  be  done 
away.” 

§  8.  Comparative,  Theology  will  probably  show  that  Ethnic 

Religions  are  arrested ,  or  degenerate ,  and  will  come  to  an 

End,  while  the  Catholic  Religion  is  capable  of  a  progres¬ 
sive  Development. 

The  religions  of  Persia,  Egypt,  Greece,  Pome,  have 
come  to  an  end  ;  having  shared  the  fate  of  the  national 
civilization  of  which  each  was  a  part.  The  religions  of 
China,  Islam,  Buddha,  and  Judaea  have  all  been  arrested, 
and  remain  unchanged  and  seemingly  unchangeable.  Like 
great  vessels  anchored  in  a  stream,  the  current  of  time 
flows  past  them,  and  each  year  they  are  further  behind 
the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  less  in  harmony  with  its  de¬ 
mands.  Christianity  alone,  of  all  human  religions,  seems 
to  possess  the  power  of  keeping  abreast  with  the  ad¬ 
vancing  civilization  of  the  world.  As  the  child’s  soul 
grows  with  his  body,  so  that  when  he  becomes  a  man 
it  is  a  man’s  soul  and  not  a  child’s,  so  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
continues  the  soul  of  all  human  culture.  It  continually 
drops  its  old  forms  and  takes  new  ones.  It  passed  out 
of  its  Jewish  body  under  the  guidance  of  Paul.  In  a 
speculative  age  it  unfolded  into  creeds  and  systems.  In 
a  worshipping  age  it  developed  ceremonies  and  a  ritual. 
When  the  fall  of  Rome  left  Europe  without  unity  or 
centre,  it  gave  it  an  organization  and  order  through  the 
Papacy.  When  the  Papacy  became  a  tyranny,  and  the 
Renaissance  called  for  free  thought,  it  suddenly  put  forth 


30 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Protestantism,  as  the  tree  by  the  water-side  sends  forth 
its  shoots  in  due  season.  Protestantism,  free  as  air,  opens 
out  into  the  various  sects,  each  taking  hold  of  some  human 
need ;  Lutheranism,  Calvinism,  Methodism,  Swedenbor- 
gianism,  or  Rationalism.  Christianity  blossoms  out  into 
modern  science,  literature,  art,  —  children  who  indeed  often 
forget  their  mother,  and  are  ignorant  of  their  source,  but 
which  are  still  fed  from  her  breasts  and  partake  of  her 
life.  Christianity,  the  spirit  of  faith,  hope,  and  love,  is  the 
deep  fountain  of  modern  civilization.  Its  inventions  are 
for  the  many,  not  for  the  few.  Its  science  is  not  hoarded, 
but  diffused.  It  elevates  the  masses,  who  everywhere  else 
have  been  trampled  down.  The  friend  of  the  people,  it 
tends  to  free  schools,  a  free  press,  a  free  government,  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  wTar,  vice,  and  the  melioration  of  soci¬ 
ety.  We  cannot,  indeed,  here  prove  that  Christianity  is 
the  cause  of  these  features  peculiar  to  modern  life ;  but 
we  find  it  everywhere  associated  with  them,  and  so  we 
can  say  that  it  only,  of  all  the  religions  of  mankind,  has 
been  capable  of  accompanying  man  in  his  progress  from 
evil  to  good,  from  good  to  better. 

We  have  merely  suggested  some  of  the  results  to  which 
the  study  of  Comparative  Theology  may  lead  us.  They 
will  appear  more  fully  as  we  proceed  in  our  examination 
of  the  religions,  and  subsequently  in  their  comparison. 
This  introductory  chapter  has  been  designed  as  a  sketch 
of  the  course  which  the  work  will  take.  When  we  have 
completed  our  survey,  the  results  to  which  we  hope  to 
arrive  will  be  these,  if  we  succeed  in  what  we  have 
undertaken :  — 

1.  All  the  great  religions  of  the  world,  except  Christian¬ 
ity  and  Mohammedanism,  are  ethnic  religions,  or  religions 
limited  to  a  single  nation  or  race.  Christianity  alone  (in¬ 
cluding  Mohammedanism  and  Judaism,  which  are  its  tem¬ 
porary  and  local  forms)  is  the  religion  of  all  races. 

2.  Every  ethnic  religion  has  its  positive  and  negative 
side.  Its  positive  side  is  that  which  holds  some  vital 
truth ;  its  negative  side  is  the  absence  of  some  other 
essential  truth.  Every  such  religion  is  true  and  providen¬ 
tial,  but  each  limited  and  imperfect. 


ETHNIC  AND  CATHOLIC  RELIGIONS. 


31 


3.  Christianity  alone  is  a  7r\rjpccpa,  or  a  fulness  of  truth, 
not  coming  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil  the  previous  religions  ; 
hut  being  capable  of  replacing  them  by  teaching  all  the 
truth  they  have  taught,  and  supplying  that  which  they 
have  omitted. 

4.  Christianity,  being  not  a  system  but  a  life,  not  a 
creed  or  a  form,  but  a  spirit ;  is  able  to  meet  all  the  chang¬ 
ing  wants  of  an  advancing  civilization  by  new  develop¬ 
ments  and  adaptations,  constantly  feeding  the  life  of  man 
at  its  roots  by  fresh  supplies  of  faith  in  God  and  faith  in 
man. 


32 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

«r 

CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE,  OR  THE  PROSE  OF  ASIA. 

§  1.  Peculiarities  of  Chinese  Civilization.  §  2.  Chinese  Government  based 
on  Education.  Civil-Service  Examinations.  §  3.  Life  and  Character 
of  Confucius.  §  4.  Philosophy  and  subsequent  Development  of  Con¬ 
fucianism.  §  5.  Lao-tse  and  Tao-ism.  §  6.  Religious  Character  of  the 
“Kings.”  §7.  Confucius  and  Christianity.  Character  of  the  Chinese. 
§  8.  The  Tae-ping  Insurrection.  Note.  The  Nestorian  Inscription  in 
China  of  the  Eighth  Century. 

§  1.  Peculiarities  of  Chinese  Civilization. 

IN  qualifying  the  Chinese  mind  as  prosaic,  and  in 
calling  the  writings  of  Confucius  and  his  successors 
prose ,  we  intend  no  disrespect  to  either.  Prose  is  as  good 
as  poetry.  But  we  mean  to  indicate  the  point  of  view 
from  which  the  study  of  the  Chinese  teachers  should  be 
approached.  Accustomed  to  regard  the  East  as  the  land 
of  imagination ;  reading  in  our  childhood  the  wild  ro¬ 
mances  of  Arabia ;  passing,  in  the  poetry  of  Persia,  into 
an  atmosphere  of  tender  and  entrancing  song ;  then,  as 
we  go  farther  East  into  India,  encountering  the  vast  epics 
of  the  Maha-Bharata  and  the  Bamayana ;  —  we  might 
naturally  expect  to  find  in  far  Cathay  a  still  wilder  flight 
of  the  Asiatic  Muse.  Not  at  all.  We  drop  at  once  from 
unbridled  romance  into  the  most  colorless  prose.  Another 
race  comes  to  us,  which  seems  to  have  no  affinity  with 
Asia,  as  we  have  been  accustomed  to  think  of  Asia.  No 
more  aspiration,  no  flights  of  fancy,  but  the  worship  of 
order,  decency,  propriety,  and  peaceful  commonplaces.  As 
the  people,  so  the  priests.  The  works  of  Confucius  and 
his  commentators  are  as  level  as  the  valley  of  their  great 
river,  the  Yang-tse-kiang,  which  the  tide  ascends  for  four 
hundred  miles.  All  in  these  writings  is  calm,  serious,  and 
moral.  They  assume  that  all  men  desire  to  be  made  bet- 


I 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE.  33 

ter,  and  will  take  the  trouble  to  find  out  how  they  can  be 
made  so.  It  is  not  thought  necessary  to  entice  them  into 
goodness  by  the  attractions  of  eloquence,  the  charm  of 
imagery,  or  the  fascinations  of  a  brilliant  wit.  These 
philosophers  have  a  Quaker  style,  a  dress  of  plain  drab, 
used  only  for  clothing  the  thought,  not  at  all  for  its  orna¬ 
ment. 

And  surely  we  ought  not  to  ask  for  any  other  attraction 
than  the  subject  -itself,  in  order  to  find  interest  in  China 
and  its  teachers.  The  Chinese  Empire,  which  contains 
more  than  five  millions  of  square  miles,  or  twice  the  area 
of  the  United  States,  has  a  population  of  five  hundred 
millions,  or  half  the  number  of  the  human  beings  inhab¬ 
iting  the  globe.  China  proper,  inhabited  by  the  Chinese, 
is  half  as  large  as  Europe,  and  contains  about  three  hun¬ 
dred  and  sixty  millions  of  inhabitants.  There  are  eigh¬ 
teen  provinces  in  China,  many  of  which  contain,  singly, 
more  inhabitants  than  some  of  the  great  states  of  Europe. 
But  on  many  other  accounts  this  nation  is  deeply  inter¬ 
esting. 

China  is  the  type  of  permanence  in  the  world.  To 
say  that  it  is  older  than  any  other  existmg  nation  is  saying 
very  little.  Herodotus,  who  has  been  called  the  Eather 
of  History,  travelled  in  Egypt  about  450  B.  c.  He  studied 
its  monuments,  bearing  the  names  of  kings  who  were  as 
distant  from  his  time  as  he  is  from  ours,  —  monuments 
which  even  then  belonged  to  a  gray  antiquity.  But  the 
kings  who  erected  those  monuments  were  possibly  pos¬ 
terior  to  the  founders  of  the  Chinese  Empire.  Porcelain 
vessels,  with  Chinese  mottoes  on  them,  have  been  found 
in  those  ancient  tombs,  in  shape,  material,  and  appearance 
precisely  like  those  which  are  made  in  China  to-day ;  and 
Bosellini  believes  them  to  have  been  imported  from  China 
by  kings  contemporary  with  Moses,  or  before  him.  This 
nation  and  its  institutions  have  outlasted  everything. 
The  ancient  Bactrian  and  Assyrian  kingdoms,  the  Persian 
monarchy,  Greece  and  Pome,  have  all  risen,  flourished, 
and  fallen,  —  and  China  continues  still  the  same.  The 
dynasty  has  been  occasionally  changed ;  but  the  laws> 
customs,  institutions,  all  that  makes  national  life,  have 

2*  c 

/  ' 


34 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


continued.  The  authentic  history  of  China  commences 
some  two  thousand  years  before  Christ,  and  a  thousand 
years  in  this  history  is  like  a  century  in  that  of  any  other 
people.  The  oral  language  of  China  has  continued  the 
same  that  it  is  now  for  thirty  centuries.  The  great  wall 
bounding  the  empire  on  the  north,  which  is  twelve  hun¬ 
dred  and  forty  miles  long  and  twenty  feet  high,  with 
towers  every  few  hundred  yards,  —  which  crosses  moun¬ 
tain  ridges,  descends  into  valleys,  and  is  carried  over 
rivers  on  arches, — was  built  two  hundred  years  before 
Christ,  probably  to  repel  those  fierce  tribes  who,  after 
ineffectual  attempts  to  conquer  China,  travelled  westward 
till  they  appeared  on  the  borders  of  Europe  five  hundred 
years  later,  and,  under  the  name  of  Huns,  assisted  in  the 
downfall  of  the  Eoman  Empire.  All  China  was  inter¬ 
sected  with  canals  at  a  period  when  none  existed  in  Europe. 
The  great  canal,  like  the  great  wall,  is  unrivalled  by  any 
similar  existing  work.  It  is  twice  the  length  of  the  Erie 
Canal,  is  from  two  hundred  to  a  thousand  feet  wide,  and 
has  enormous  banks  built  of  solid  granite  along  a  great 
part  of  its  course.  One  of  the  important  mechanical  in¬ 
ventions  of  modern  Europe  is  the  Artesian  well.  That 
sunk  at  Grenelle,  in  France,  was  long  supposed  to  be  the 
deepest  in  the  world,  going  down  eighteen  hundred  feet. 
One  at  St.  Louis,  in  the  United  States,  has  since  been 
drilled  to  a  depth,  as  has  recently  been  stated,  of  about 
four  thousand.*  But  in  China  these  wells  are  found 
by  tens  of  thousands,  sunk  at  very  remote  periods  to  ob¬ 
tain  salt  water.  The  method  used  by  the  Chinese  from 
immemorial  time  has  recently  been  adopted  instead  of 
our  own  as  being  the  most  simple  and  economical.  The 

*  The  actual  depth  reached  in  the  St.  Louis  well,  before  the  enterprise 
was  abandoned,  was  3,843^  feet  on  August  9,  1869.  This  well  was  bored 
for  the  use  of  the  St.  Louis  County  Insane  Asylum,  at  the  public  ex¬ 
pense.  It  was  commenced  March  31,  1866,  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
Charles  H.  Atkeson.  At  the  depth  of  1,222  feet  the  water  became 
saltish,  then  sulphury.  The  temperature  of  the  water,  at  the  bottom 
of  the  well,  was  105°  F.  Toward  the  end  of  the  work  it  seemed  as 
if  the  limit  of  the  strength  of  wood  and  iron  had  been  reached.  The 
poles  often  broke  at  points  two  or  three  thousand  feet  down.  “  Annual 
Report  (1870)  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  St.  Louis  County  Insane 
Asylum.”  — 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


35 


Chinese  have  been  long  acquainted  with  the  circulation  of 
the  blood ;  they  inoculated  for  the  small-pox  in  the  ninth 
century ;  and  about  the  same  time  they  invented  print¬ 
ing.  Their  bronze  money  was  made  as  early  as  1100  B.  c., 
and  its  form  has  not  been  changed  since  the  beginning  of 
the  Christian  era.  The  mariner’s  compass,  gunpowder, 
and  the  art  of  printing  were  made  known  to  Europe 
through  stories  told  by  missionaries  returning  from  Asia. 
These  missionaries,  coasting  the  shores  of  the  Celestial 
Empire  in  Chinese  junks,  saw  a  little  box  containing  a 
magnetized  needle,  called  Ting-nan-Tchen,  or  “needle 
which  points  to  the  south.”  They  also  noticed  terrible 
machines  used  by  the  armies  in  China  called  Ho-pao  or 
tire-guns,  into  which  was  put  an  inflammable  powder, 
which  produced  a  noise  like  thunder  and  projected  stones 
and  pieces  of  iron  with  irresistible  force. 

Father  Hue,  in  his  “  Christianity  in  China,”  says  that 
“  the  Europeans  who  penetrated  into  China  were  no  less 
struck  with  the  libraries  of  the  Chinese  than  with  their 
artillery.  They  were  astonished  at  the  sight  of  the  elegant 
books  printed  rapidly  upon  a  pliant,  silky  paper  by  means 
of  wooden  blocks.  The  first  edition  of  the  classical  works 
printed  in  China  appeared  in  958,  five  hundred  years  be¬ 
fore  the  invention  of  Gutenberg.  The  missionaries  had, 
doubtless,  often  been  busied  in  their  convents  with  the 
laborious  work  of  copying  manuscript  books,  and  the  sim¬ 
ple  Chinese  method  of  printing  must  have  particularly 
attracted  their  attention.  Many  other  marvellous  pro¬ 
ductions  were  noticed,  such  as  silk,  porcelain,  playing- 
cards,  spectacles,  and  other  products  of  art  and  industry 
unknown  in  Europe.  They  brought  back  these  new  ideas 
to  Europe  ; f  and  from  that  time,’  says  Abel  Bemusat,  ‘  the 
West  began  to  hold  in  due  esteem  the  most  beautiful,  the 
most  populous,  and  the  most  anciently  civilized  of  all  the 
four  quarters  of  the  world.  The  arts,  the  religious  faith, 
and  the  languages  of  its  people  were  studied,  and  it  was 
even  proposed  to  establish  a  professorship  for  the  Tartar 
language  in  the  University  of  Paris.  The  world  seemed 
to  open  towards  the  East  ;  geography  made  immense 
strides,  and  ardor  for  discovery  opened  a  new  vent  for  the 


36 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


adventurous  spirit  of  the  Europeans.  As  our  own  hemi¬ 
sphere  became  better  known,  the  idea  of  another  ceased  to 
appear  a  wholly  improbable  paradox  ;  and  in  seeking  the 
Zipangon  of  Marco  Polo,  Christopher  Columbus  discovered 
the  New  World/  ” 

The  first  aspect  of  China  produces  that  impression  on 
the  mind  which  we  call  the  grotesque.  This  is  merely 
because  the  customs  of  this  singular  nation  are  so  opposite 
to  our  own.  They  seem  morally,  no  less  than  physically, 
our  antipodes.  Their  habits  are  as  opposite  to  ours  as  the 
direction  of  their  bodies.  We  stand  feet  to  feet  in  every¬ 
thing.  In  boxing  the  compass  they  say  “  westnorth  ”  in¬ 
stead  of  northwest,  “  eastsouth  ”  instead  of  southeast,  and 
their  compass-needle  points  south  instead  of  north.  Their 
soldiers  wear  quilted  petticoats,  satin  boots,  and  bead 
necklaces,  carry  umbrellas  and  fans,  and  go  to  a  night  at¬ 
tack  with  lanterns  in  their  hands,  being  more  afraid  of 
the  dark  than  of  exposing  themselves  to  the  enemy.  The 
people  are  very  fond  of  fireworks,  but  prefer  to  have  them 
in  the  daytime.  Ladies  ride  in  wheelbarrows,  and  cows 
are  driven  in  carriages.  While  in  Europe  the  feet  are  put 
in  the  stocks,  in  China  the  stocks  are  hung  round  the 
neck.  In  China  the  family  name  comes  first,  and  the  per¬ 
sonal  name  afterward.  Instead  of  saying  Benjamin  Frank¬ 
lin  or  Walter  Scott  they  would  say  Franklin  Benjamin, 
Scott  Walter.  Thus  the  Chinese  name  of  Confucius, 
Kung-fu- tsee,  means  the  Holy  Master  Kung ;  —  Kung  is  * 
the  family  name.  In  the  recent  wars  with  the  English 
the  mandarins  or  soldiers  would  sometimes  run  away,  and 
then  commit  suicide  to  avoid  punishment.  In  getting  on 
a  horse,  the  Chinese  mount  on  the  right  side.  Their 
old  men  fly  kites,  while  the  little  boys  look  on.  The 
left  hand  is  the  seat  of  honor,  and  to  keep  on  your  hat  is 
a  sign  of  respect.  Visiting  cards  are  painted  red,  and  are 
four  feet  long.  In  the  opinion  of  the  Chinese,  the  seat  of 
the  understanding  is  the  stomach.  They  have  villages 
which  contain  a  million  of  inhabitants.  Their  boats  are 
drawn  by  men,  but  their  carriages  are  moved  by  sails.  A 
married  woman  while  young  and  pretty  is  a  slave,  but 
when  she  becomes  old  and  withered  is  the  most  powerful, 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


37 


respected,  and  beloved  person  in  the  family.  The  em¬ 
peror  is  regarded  with  the  most  profound  reverence,  but 
the  empress  mother  is  a  greater  person  than  he.  When  a 
man  furnishes  his  house,  instead  of  laying  stress,  as  we 
do,  on  rosewood  pianos  and  carved  mahogany,  his  first 
ambition  is  for  a  handsome  camphor-wood  coffin,  which  he 
keeps  in  the  best  place  in  his  room.  The  interest  of 
money  is  thirty-six  per  cent,  which,  to  be  sure,  we  also 
give  in  hard  times  to  stave  off  a  stoppage,  while  with  them 
it  is  the  legal  rate.  We  once  heard  a  bad  dinner  de¬ 
scribed  thus  :  “  The  meat  was  cold,  the  wine  was  hot,  and 
everything  was  sour  but  the  vinegar.’’  This  would  not  so 
much  displease  the  Chinese,  who  carefully  warm  their 
wine,  while  we  ice  ours.  They  understand  good  living, 
however,  very  well,  are  great  epicures,  and  somewhat 
gourmands,  for,  after  dining  on  thirty  dishes,  they  will 
sometimes  eat  a  duck  by  way  of  a  finish.  They  toss  their 
meat  into  their  mouths  to  a  tune,  every  man  keeping  time 
with  his  chop-sticks,  while  we,  on  the  contrary,  make  any¬ 
thing  but  harmony  with  the  clatter  of  our  knives  and 
forks.  A  Chinaman  will  not  drink  a  drop  of  milk,  but  he 
will  devour  birds’-nests,  snails,  and  the  fins  of  sharks  with 
a  great  relish.  Our  mourning  color  is  black  and  theirs 
is  white  ;  they  mourn  for  their  parents  three  years,  we  a 
much  shorter  time.  The  principal  room  in  their  houses  is 
called  “  the  hall  of  ancestors,”  the  pictures  or  tablets  of 
whom,  set  up  against  the  wall,  are  worshipped  by  them ; 
we,  on  the  other  hand,  are  only  too  apt  to  send  our  grand¬ 
father’s  portrait  to  the  garret* 

*  Andrew  Wilson  (“  The  Ever- Victorious  Army,  Blackwood,  1868  ”) 
says  that  “the  Chinese  people  stand  unsurpassed,  and  probably  unequalled, 
in  regard  to  the  possession  of  freedom  and  self-government.”  He  denies 
that  infanticide  is  common  in  China.  “Indeed,”  says  he,  “there  is 
nothing  a  Chinaman  dreads  so  much  as  to  die  childless.  Every  China¬ 
man  desires  to  have  as  large  a  family  as  possible  ;  and  the  labors  of  female 
children  are  very  profitable.” 


38 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


§  2.  Chinese  Government  based  on  Education.  Civil-Ser¬ 
vice  Examinations. 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  external  differences  between  the 
Chinese  customs  and  ours.  But  the  most  essential  pecu¬ 
liarity  of  this  nation  is  the  high  value  which  they  attribute 
to  knowledge,  and  the  distinctions  and  rewards  which  they 
bestow  on  scholarship.  All  the  civil  offices  in  the  Empire 
are  given  as  rewards  of  literary  merit.  The  government, 
indeed,  is  called  a  complete  despotism,  and  the  emperor  is 
said  to  have  absolute  authority.  He  is  not  bound  by  any 
written  constitution,  indeed ;  but  the  public  opinion  of 
the  land  holds  him,  nevertheless,  to  a  strict  responsibility. 
He,  no  less  than  his  people,  is  bound  by  a  law  higher 
than  that  of  any  private  will,  —  the  authority  of  custom. 
Eor,  in  China,  more  than  anywhere  else,  “what  is  gray 
with  age  becomes  religion.”  The  authority  of  the  em¬ 
peror  is  simply  authority  to  govern  according  to  the 
ancient  usages  of  the  country,  and  whenever  these  are 
persistently  violated,  a  revolution  takes  place  and  the 
dynasty  is  changed.  But  a  revolution  in  China  changes 
nothing  but  the  person  of  the  monarch ;  the  unwritten 
constitution  of  old  usages  remains  in  full  force.  “  A  prin¬ 
ciple  as  old  as  the  monarchy,”  says  Hu  Halde,  “is  this, 
that  the  state  is  a  large  family,  and  the  emperor  is  in  the 
place  of  both  father  and  mother.  He  must  govern  his 
people  with  affection  and  goodness  ;  he  must  attend  to  the 
smallest  matters  which  concern  their  happiness.  When 
he  is  not  supposed  to  have  this  sentiment,  he  soon  loses 
his  hold  on  the  reverence  of  the  people,  and  his  throne 
becomes  insecure.”  The  emperor,  therefore,  is  always 
studying  how  to  preserve  this  reputation.  When  a  prov¬ 
ince  is  afflicted  by  famine,  inundation,  or  any  other  calam¬ 
ity,  he  shuts  himself  in  his  palace,  fasts,  and  publishes 
decrees  to  relieve  it  of  taxes  and  afford  it  aid. 

The  true  power  of  the  government  is  in  the  literary 
class.  The  government,  though  nominally  a  monarchy,  is 
really  an  aristocracy.  But  it  is  not  an  aristocracy  of 
birth,  like  that  of  England,  for  the  humblest  man's  son 
can  obtain  a  place  in  it ;  neither  is  it  an  aristocracy  of 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


39 


wealth,  like  ours  in  the  United  States,  nor  a  military  aris¬ 
tocracy,  like  that  of  Eussia,  nor  an  aristocracy  of  priests, 
like  that  of  ancient  Egypt,  and  of  some  modem  countries, 
—  as,  for  instance,  that  of  Paraguay  under  the  Jesuits,  or 
that  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  under  the  Protestant  mis¬ 
sionaries  but  it  is  a  literary  aristocracy. 

The  civil  officers  in  China  are  called  mandarins.  They 
are  chosen  from  the  three  degrees  of  learned  men,  who 
may  be  called  the  bachelors,  licentiates,  and  doctors.  All 
persons  may  be  candidates  for  the  first  degree,  except 
three  excluded  classes,  —  boatmen,  barbers,  and  actors. 
The  candidates  are  examined  by  the  governors  of  their 
own  towns.  Of  those  approved,  a  few  are  selected  after 
another  examination.  These  again  are  examined  by  an 
officer  who  makes  a  circuit  once  in  three  years  for  that 
purpose.  They  are  placed  alone  in  little  rooms  or  closets, 
with  pencils,  ink,  and  paper,  and  a  subject  is  given  them 
to  write  upon.  Out  of  some  four  hundred  candidates  fif¬ 
teen  may  be  selected,  who  receive  the  lowest  degree.  There 
is  another  triennial  examination  for  the  second  degree, 
at  which  a  small  number  of  the  bachelors  are  promoted. 
The  examination  for  the  highest  degree,  that  of  doctor,  is 
held  at  Pekin  only,  when  some  three  hundred  are  taken 
out  of  five  thousand.  These  are  capable  of  receiving 
the  highest  offices.  Whenever  a  vacancy  occurs,  one  of 
those  who  have  received  a  degree  is  taken  by  lot  from 
the  few  senior  names.  But  a  few  years  since,  there  were 
five  thousand  of  the  highest  rank,  and  twenty-seven 
thousand  of  the  second  rank,  who  had  not  received  em¬ 
ployment. 

The  subjects  upon  which  the  candidates  are  examined, 
and  the  methods  of  these  examinations,  are  thus  described 
in  the  Shanghae  Almanac  (1852).* 

The  examinations  for  the  degree  of  Keujin  (or  licen¬ 
tiate)  takes  place  at  the  principal  city  of  each  province 
once  in  three  years.  The  average  number  of  bachelors  in 
the  large  province  of  Keang-Nan  (which  contains  seventy 
millions  of  inhabitants)  is  twenty  thousand,  out  of  whom 

*  Quoted  by  Mr.  Meadows,  who  warrants  the  correctness  of  the  account. 
‘‘The  Chinese  and  their  Rebellions,”  p.  404. 


40 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


only  about  two  hundred  succeed.  Sixty-five  mandarins 
are  deputed  for  this  examination,  besides  subordinate 
officials.  The  two  chief  examiners  are  sent  from  Pekin. 
When  the  candidates  enter  the  examination  hall  they  are 
searched  for  books  or  manuscripts,  which  might  assist 
them  in  writing  their  essays.  This  precaution  is  not  su¬ 
perfluous,  for  many  plans  have  been  invented  to  enable 
mediocre  people  to  pass.  Sometimes  a  thin  book,  printed 
on  very  small  type  from  copperplates,  is  slipped  into  a 
hole  in  the  sole  of  the  shoe.  But  persons  detected  in  such 
practices  are  ruined  for  life.  In  a  list  of  one  hundred  and 
forty-four  successful  candidates,  in  1851,  thirteen  were  over 
forty  years  of  age,  and  one  under  fourteen  years ;  seven 
were  under  twenty ;  and  all,  to  succeed,  must  have  known 
by  heart  the  whole  of  the  Sacred  Books,  besides  being  well 
read  in  history. 

Three  sets  of  themes  are  given,  each  occupying  two  days 
and  a  night,  and  until  that  time  is  expired  no  one  is 
allowed  to  leave  his  apartment,  which  is  scarcely  large 
enough  to  sleep  in.  The  essays  must  not  contain  more 
than  seven  hundred  characters,  and  no  erasure  or  correc¬ 
tion  is  allowed.  On  the  first  days  the  themes  are  taken 
from  the  Four  Books ;  on  the  next,  from  the  older  classics ; 
on  the  last,  miscellaneous  questions  are  given.  The  themes 
are  such  as  these  :  “  Choo-tsze,  in  commenting  on  the  Shoo- 
King,  made  use  of  four  authors,  who  sometimes  say  too 
much,  at  other  times  too  little ;  sometimes  their  explana¬ 
tions  are  forced,  at  other  times  too  ornamental.  What 
have  you  to  observe  on  them  ?  ”  “  Cliinshow  had  great 

abilities  for  historic  writing.  In  his  Three  Kingdoms  he 
has  depreciated  Choo-ko-leang,  and  made  very  light  of  E 
and  E,  two  other  celebrated  characters.  What  is  it  that 
he  says  of  them  ?  ” 

These  public-service  examinations  are  conducted  with 
the  greatest  impartiality.  They  were  established  about  a 
thousand  years  ago,  and  have  been  gradually  improved 
during  the  intervening  time.  They  form  the  basis  of 
the  whole  system  of  Chinese  government.  They  make  a 
good  education  universally  desirable,  as  the  poorest  man 
may  see  his  son  thus  advanced  to  the  highest  position. 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


41 


All  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  who  prepare  to  compete 
are  obliged  to  know  the  whole  system  of  Confucius,  to 
commit  to  memory  all  his  moral  doctrines,  and  to  be¬ 
come  familiar  with  all  the  traditional  wisdom  of  the  land. 
Thus  a  public  opinion  in  favor  of  existing  institutions  and 
the  fundamental  ideas  of  Chinese  government  is  continu¬ 
ally  created  anew. 

What  an  immense  advantage  it  would  he  to  our  own 
country  if  we  should  adopt  this  institution  of  China ! 
Instead  of  making  offices  the  prize  of  impudence,  political 
management,  and  party  services,  let  them  be  competed  for 
by  all  who  consider  themselves  qualified.  Let  all  offices 
now  given  by  appointment  be  hereafter  bestowed  on  those 
who  show  themselves  best  qualified  to  perform  the  duties. 
Each  class  of  offices  would  of  course  require  a  different 
kind  of  examination.  For  some,  physical  culture  as  well  as 
mental  might  be  required.  Persons  who  wished  diplomatic 
situations  should  be  prepared  in  a  knowledge  of  foreign 
languages  as  well  as  of  international  law.  All  should  be 
examined  on  the  Constitution  and  history  of  the  United 
States.  Candidates  for  the  Post-Office  Department  should 
be  good  copyists,  quick  at  arithmetic,  and  acquainted  with 
book-keeping.  It  is  true  that  we  cannot  by  an  examina¬ 
tion  obtain  a  certain  knowledge  of  moral  qualities  ;  but 
industry,  accuracy,  fidelity  in  work  would  certainly  show 
themselves.  A  change  from  the  present  corrupt  and  cor¬ 
rupting  system  of  appointments  to  that  of  competitive 
examinations  would  do  more  just  now  for  our  country 
than  any  other  measure  of  reconstruction  which  can  be 
proposed.  The  permanence  of  Chinese  institutions  is  be¬ 
lieved,  by  those  who  know  best,  to  result  from  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  the  literary  class.  Literature  is  naturally  con¬ 
servative  ;  the  tone  of  the  literature  studied  is  eminently 
conservative ;  and  the  most  intelligent  men  in  the  empire 
are  personally  interested  in  the  continuance  of  the  insti¬ 
tutions  under  which  they  hope  to  attain  position  and 
fortune. 

The  highest  civil  offices  are  seats  at  the  great  tribunals 
or  boards,  and  the  positions  of  viceroys,  or  governors,  of 
the  eighteen  provinces. 


42 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  boards  are  :  — 

Ly  Pou,  Board  of  Appointment  of  Mandarins. 

Hon  Pou,  Board  of  Finance. 

Lee  Pou,  Board  of  Ceremonies. 

Ping  Pou,  Board  of  War. 

Hing  Pou,  Board  of  Criminal  Justice. 

Kong  Pou,  Board  of  Works, —  canals,  bridges,  &c. 

The  members  of  these  boards,  with  their  councillors 
and  subordinates,  amount  to  twelve  hundred  officers. 
Then  there  is  the  Board  of  Doctors  of  the  Han  Lin  Col¬ 
lege,  who  have  charge  of  the  archives,  history  of  the  em¬ 
pire,  &c. ;  and  the  Board  of  Censors,  who  are  the  highest 
mandarins,  and  have  a  peculiar  office.  Their  duty  is  to 
stand  between  the  people  and  the  mandarins,  and  between 
the  people  and  the  emperor,  and  even  rebuke  the  latter 
if  they  find  him  doing  wrong.  This  is  rather  a  perilous 
duty,  but  it  is  often  faithfully  performed.  A  censor,  who 
went  to  tell  the  emperor  of  some  faults,  took  his  coffin 
with  him,  and  left  it  at  the  door  of  the  palace.  Two  cen¬ 
sors  remonstrated  with  a  late  emperor  on  the  expenses  of 
his  palace,  specifying  the  sums  uselessly  lavished  for  per¬ 
fumes  and  flowers  for  his  concubines,  and  stating  that  a 
million  of  taels  of  silver  might  be  saved  for  the  poor  by 
reducing  these  expenses.  Sung,  the  commissioner  who 
attended  Lord  Macartney,  remonstrated  with  the  Emperor 
Kiaking  on  his  attachment  to  play-actors  and  strong 
drink,  which  degraded  him  in  the  eyes  of  the  people.  The 
emperor,  highly  irritated,  asked  him  what  punishment  he 
deserved  for  his  insolence.  “  Quartering,”  said  Sung. 
“  Choose  another,”  said  the  emperor.  “  Let  me  be  be¬ 
headed.”  “  Choose  again,”  said  the  emperor ;  and  Sung 
asked  to  be  strangled.  The  next  day  the  emperor  ap¬ 
pointed  him  governor  of  a  distant  province,  —  afraid  to 
punish  him  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  his  duty,  but  glad 
to  have  him  at  a  distance.  Many  such  anecdotes  are  re¬ 
lated,  showing  that  there  is  some  moral  courage  in  China. 

The  governor  of  a  province,  or  viceroy,  has  great  power. 
He  also  is  chosen  from  among  the  mandarins  in  the  way 
described.  The  only  limitations  of  his  power  are  these  : 
he  is  bound  to  make  a  full  report  every  three  years  of  the 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


43 


affairs  of  the  province,  and  give  in  it  an  account  of  liis  own 
faults ,  and  if  he  omits  any,  and  they  are  discovered  in 
other  ways,  he  is  punished  by  degradation,  bambooing,  or 
death.  It  is  the  right  of  any  subject,  however  humble,  to 
complain  to  the  emperor  himself  against  any  officer,  how¬ 
ever  high  ;  and  for  this  purpose  a  large  drum  is  placed  at 
one  of  the  palace  gates.  Whoever  strikes  it  has  his  case 
examined  under  the  emperor’s  eye,  and  if  he  has  been 
wronged,  his  wrongs  are  redressed,  but  if  he  has  com¬ 
plained  unnecessarily,  he  is  severely  punished.  Imperial 
visitors,  sent  by  the  Board  of  Censors,  may  suddenly  ar¬ 
rive  at  any  time  to  examine  the  concerns  of  a  province ; 
and  a  governor  or  other  public  officer  who  is  caught  trip¬ 
ping  is  immediately  reported  and  punished. 

Thus  the  political  institutions  of  China  are  built  on  lit¬ 
erature.  Knowledge  is  the  road  to  power  and  wealth. 
All  the  talent  and  knowledge  of  the  nation  are  interested 
in  the  support  of  institutions  which  give  to  them  either 
power  or  the  hope  of  it.  And  these  institutions  work 
well.  The  machinery  is  simple,  but  it  produces  a  vast 
amount  of  happiness  and  domestic  virtue.  While  in  most 
parts  of  Asia  the  people  are  oppressed  by  petty  tyrants, 
and  ground  down  by  taxes,  —  while  they  have  no  motive 
to  improve  their  condition,  since  every  advance  will  only 
expose  them  to  greater  extortion,  —  the  people  of  China 
are  industrious  and  happy.  In  no  part  of  the  world  has 
agriculture  been  carried  to  such  perfection.  Every  piece 
of  ground  in  the  cultivated  parts  of  the  empire,  except 
those  portions  devoted  to  ancestral  monuments,  is  made 
to  yield  two  or  three  crops  annually,  by  the  careful  tillage 
bestowed  on  it.  The  ceremony  of  opening  the  soil  at  the 
beginning  of  the  year,  at  which  the  emperor  officiates, 
originated  two  thousand  years  ago.  Farms  are  small,  — 
of  one  or  two  acres,  —  and  each  family  raises  on  its  farm 
all  that  it  consumes.  Silk  and  cotton  are  cultivated  and 
manufactured  in  families,  each  man  spinning,  weaving, 
and  dyeing  his  own  web.  In  the  manufacture  of  porce¬ 
lain,  on  the  contrary,  the  division  of  labor  is  earned  very 
far.  The  best  is  made  at  the  village  of  Kiangsee,  which 
contains  a  million  of  inhabitants.  Seventy  hands  are 


44 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


sometimes  employed  on  a  single  cup.  The  Chinese  are 
very  skilful  in  working  horn  and  ivory.  Large  lanterns 
are  made  of  horn,  transparent  and  without  a  flaw.  At 
Birmingham  men  have  tried  with  machines  to  cut  ivory 
in  the  same  manner  as  the  Chinese,  and  have  failed. 

§  3.  Life  and  Character  of  Confucius. 

Of  this  nation  the  great  teacher  for  twenty-three  cen¬ 
turies  has  been  Confucius.  He  was  born  551  B.  c.,  and 
was  contemporary  with  the  Tarquins,  Pythagoras,  and  Cy¬ 
rus.  About  his  time  occurred  the  return  of  the  Jews  from 
Babylon  and  the  invasion  of  Greece  by  Xerxes.  His 
descendants  have  always  enjoyed  high  privileges,  and 
there  are  now  some  forty  thousand  of  them  in  China, 
seventy  generations  and  more  removed  from  their  great 
ancestor.  His  is  the  oldest  family  in  the  world,  unless 
we  consider  the  Jews  as  a  single  family  descended  from 
Abraham.  His  influence,  through  his  writings,  on  the 
minds  of  so  many  millions  of  human  beings  is  greater  than 
that  of  any  man  who  ever  lived,  excepting  the  writers  of 
the  Bible ;  and  in  saying  this  we  do  not  forget  the  names 
of  Mohammed,  Aristotle,  St.  Augustine,  and  Luther.  So 
far  as  we  can  see,  it  is  the  influence  of  Confucius  which 
has  maintained,  though  probably  not  originated,  in  China, 
that  profound  reverence  for  parents,  that  strong  family 
affection,  that  love  of  order,  that  regard  for  knowledge  and 
deference  for  literary  men,  which  are  fundamental  princi¬ 
ples  underlying  all  the  Chinese  institutions.  His  minute 
and  practical  system  of  morals,  studied  as  it  is  by  all  the 
learned,  and  constituting  the  sum  of  knowledge  and  the 
principle  of  government  in  China,  has  exerted  and  exerts 
an  influence  on  that  innumerable  people  which  it  is 
impossible  to  estimate,  but  which  makes  us  admire  the 
power  which  can  emanate  from  a  single  soul. 

To  exert  such  an  influence  requires  greatness.  If  the 
tree  is  to  be  known  by  its  fruits,  Confucius  must  have  been 
one  of  the  master  minds  of  our  race.  The  supposition 
that  a  man  of  low  morals  or  small  intellect,  an  impostor 
or  an  enthusiast,  could  influence  the  world,  is  a  theory 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


45 


which  is  an  insult  to  human  nature.  The  time  for  such 
theories  has  happily  gone  by.  We  now  know  that  nothing 
can  come  of  nothing,  —  that  a  fire  of  straw  may  make  a 
bright  blaze,  but  must  necessarily  soon  go  out.  A  light 
which  illuminates  centuries  must  be  more  than  an  ignis 
fatuus.  Accordingly  we  should  approach  Confucius  with 
respect,  and  expect  to  find  something  good  and  wise  in 
his  writings.  It  is  only  a  loving  spirit  which  will  enable 
us  to  penetrate  the  difficulties  which  surround  the  study, 
and  to  apprehend  something  of  the  true  genius  of  the 
man  and  his  teachings.  As  there  is  no  immediate  dan¬ 
ger  of  becoming  his  followers,  we  can  see  no  objections  to 
such  a  course,  which  also  appears  to  be  a  species  of  men¬ 
tal  hospitality,  eminently  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of 
our  own  Master. 

Confucius  belongs  to  that  small  company  of  select  ones 
whose  lives  have  been  devoted  to  the  moral  elevation  of 
their  fellow-men.  Among  them  he  stands  high,  for  he 
sought  to  implant  the  purest  principles  of  religion  and 
morals  in  the  character  of  the  whole  people,  and  succeeded 
in  doing  it.  To  show  that  this  was  his  purpose  it  will 
be  necessary  to  give  a  brief  sketch  of  his  life. 

His  ancestors  were  eminent  statesmen  and  soldiers  in 
the  small  country  of  Loo,  then  an  independent  kingdom, 
now  a  Chinese  province.  The  year  of  his  birth  was  that 
in  which  Cyrus  became  king  of  Persia.  His  father,  one 
of  the  highest  officers  of  the  kingdom,  and  a  brave  soldier, 
died  when  Confucius  was  three  years  old.  .  He  was  a 
studious  boy,  and  when  fifteen  years  old  had  studied  the 
five  sacred  books  called  Kings.  He  was  married  at  the 
age  of  nineteen,  and  had  only  one  son  by  his  only  wife. 
This  son  died  before  Confucius,  leaving  as  his  posterity  a 
single  grandchild,  from  whom  the  great  multitudes  of  his 
descendants  now  in  China  were  derived.  This  grandson 
was  second  only  to  Confucius  in  wisdom,  and  was  the 
teacher  of  the  illustrious  Mencius. 

The  first  part  of  the  life  of  Confucius  was  spent  in  at¬ 
tempting  to  reform  the  abuses  of  society  by  means  of  the 
official  stations  which  he  held,  by  his  influence  with  princes, 
and  by  travelling  and  intercourse  with  men.  The  second 


46 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


period  was  that  in  which  he  was  recalled  from  his  travels 
to  become  a  minister  in  his  native  country,  the  kingdom 
of  Loo.  Here  he  applied  his  theories  of  government,  and 
tested  their  practicability.  He  was  then  fifty  years  olcl 
His  success  was  soon  apparent  in  the  growing  prosperity 
of  the  whole  people.  Instead  of  the  tyranny  which  be¬ 
fore  prevailed,  they  were  now  ruled  according  to  his  idea 
of  good  government,  —  that  of  the  father  of  a  family. 
Confidence  was  restored  to  the  public  mind,  and  all  good 
influences  followed.  But  the  tree  was  not  yet  deeply 
enough  rooted  to  resist  accidents,  and  all  his  wise  arrange¬ 
ments  were  suddenly  overthrown  by  the  caprice  of  the 
monarch,  who,  tired  of  the  austere  virtue  of  Confucius, 
suddenly  plunged  into  a  career  of  dissipation.  Confucius 
resigned  his  office,  and  again  became  a  wanderer,  but  now 
with  a  new  motive.  He  had  before  travelled  to  learn, 
now  he  travelled  to  teach.  He  collected  disciples  around 
him,  and,  no  longer  seeking  to  gain  the  ear  of  princes,  he 
diffused  his  ideas  among  the  common  people  by  means  of 
his  disciples,  whom  he  sent  out  everywhere  to  communi¬ 
cate  his  doctrines.  So,  amid  many  vicissitudes  of  out¬ 
ward  fortune,  he  lived  till  he  was  seventy-three  years  old. 
In  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  occupied  himself  in  pub¬ 
lishing  his  works,  and  in  editing  the  Sacred  Books.  His 
disciples  had  become  very  numerous,  historians  estimat¬ 
ing  them  at  three  thousand,  of  whom  five  hundred  had 
attained  to  official  station,  seventy-two  had  penetrated 
deeply  into  his  system,  and  ten,  of  the  highest  class  of 
mind  and  character,  were  continually  near  his  person.  Of 
these  Hwuy  was  especially  valued  by  him,  as  having  early 
attained  superior  virtue.  He  frequently  referred  to  him 
in  his  conversations.  “  I  saw  him  continually  advance,” 
said  he,  “  but  I  never  saw  him  stop  in  the  path  of  knowl¬ 
edge.”  Again  he  says  :  “  The  wisest  of  my  disciples,  hav¬ 
ing  one  idea,  understands  two.  Hwuy,  having  one  under¬ 
stands  ten.”  One  of  the  select  ten  disciples,  Tszee-loo,  was 
rash  and  impetuous  like  the  Apostle  Peter.  Another, 
Tszee-Kung,  was  loving  and  tender  like  the  Apostle  John  ; 
he  built  a  house  near  the  grave  of  Confucius,  wherein  to 
mourn  for  him  after  his  death. 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


47 


The  last  years  of  the  life  of  Confucius  were  devoted  to 
editing  the  Sacred  Books,  or  Kings.  As  we  now  have  them 
they  come  from  him.  Authentic  records  of  Chinese  his¬ 
tory  extend  back  to  2357  b.  c.,  while  the  Chinese  philoso¬ 
phy  originated  with  Fuh-he,  who  lived  about  3327  B.  c. 
He  it  was  who  substituted  writing  for  the  knotted  strings 
which  before  formed  the  only  means  of  record.  He  was 
also  the  author  of  the  Eight  Diagrams,  —  each  consisting 
of  three  lines,  half  of  which  are  whole  and  half  broken  in 
two, — which  by  their  various  combinations  are  supposed 
to  represent  the  active  and  passive  principles  of  the  uni¬ 
verse  in  all  their  essential  forms.  Confucius  edited  the 
Yih-King,  the  Shoo-King,  the  She-King,  and  the  Le-Ke, 
which  constitute  the  whole  of  the  ancient  literature  of 
China  which  has  come  down  to  posterity.*  The  Four 
Books,  which  contain  the  doctrines  of  Confucius,  and  of 
his  school,  were  not  written  by  himself,  but  composed  by 
others  after  his  death. 

One  of  these  is  called  the  "  Immutable  Mean,”  and  its 
object  is  to  show  that  virtue  consists  in  avoiding  extremes. 
Another  —  the  Lun-Yu,  or  Analects  —  contains  the  con¬ 
versation  or  table-talk  of  Confucius,  and  somewhat  resem¬ 
bles  the  Memorabilia  of  Xenophon  and  Boswell’s  Life  of 
Johnson.* 

*  Dr.  Legge  thus  arranges  the  Sacred  Books  of  China,  or  the  Chinese 
Classics  :  — 

A.  The  Five  King.  [ King  means  a  web  of  cloth,  or  the  warp  which 

keeps  the  threads  in  their  place.] 

(a)  Yih-King.  (Changes.) 

(b)  Slioo-King.  (History.) 

(c)  She-King.  (Odes.) 

(d)  Le-Kc-King.  (Bites.) 

(e)  Ch’un-Ts'eu.  (Spring  and  Autumn.  Annals  from  b.  c.  721  to 

480.) 

B.  The  Four  Books. 

(a)  Lun-  Yu.  (Analects,  or  Table-Talk  of  Confucius.) 

(b)  Ta-Hio.  (Great  Learning.  Written  by  T sang -Sin,  a  discipP 
of  Confucius.) 

(c)  Chung-  Yung  (or  Doctrine  of  the  Mean),  ascribed  to  Kung-Keih, 
the  grandson  of  Confucius. 

(d)  Works  of  Mencius. 

After  the  death  of  Confucius  there  was  a  period  in  which  the  Sacred 
Books  were  much  corrupted,  down  to  the  Han  dynasty  (b.  c.  201  tc 


48 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  life  of  Confucius  was  thus  devoted  to  communicat¬ 
ing  to  the  Chinese  nation  a  few  great  moral  and  religious 
principles,  which  he  believed  would  insure  the  happiness 
of  the  people.  His  devotion  to  this  aim  appears  in  his 
writings.  Thus  he  says  :  — 

“  At  fifteen  years  I  longed  for  wisdom.  At  thirty  my 
mind  was  fixed  in  the  pursuit  of  it.  At  forty  I  saw  clearly 
certain  principles.  At  fifty  I  understood  the  rule  given 
by  heaven.  At  sixty  everything  I  heard  I  easily  under¬ 
stood.  At  seventy  the  desires  of  my  heart  no  longer 
transgressed  the  law.” 

“  If  in  the  morning  I  hear  about  the  right  way,  and  in 
the  evening  I  die,  I  can  be  happy.” 

He  says  of  himself :  “  He  is  a  man  who  through  his 
earnestness  in  seeking  knowledge  forgets  his  food,  and  in 
his  joy  for  having  found  it  loses  all  sense  of  his  toil,  and 
thus  occupied  is  unconscious  that  he  has  almost  reached 
old  age.” 

Again  :  “  Coarse  rice  for  food,  water  to  drink,  the  bended 
arm  for  a  pillow,  —  happiness  may  be  enjoyed  even  with 
these ;  but  without  virtue  both  riches  and  honor  seem  to 
me  like  the  passing  cloud.” 

“  Grieve  not  that  men  know  not  you  ;  grieve  that  you 
know  not  men.” 

A.  D.  24),  which  collected,  edited,  and  revised  them  :  since  which  time 
they  have  been  watched  with  the  greatest  care. 

“The  evidence  is  complete  that  the  Classical  Books  of  China  have 
come  down  from  at  least  a  century  before  our  era,  substantially  the  same 
as  we  have  them  at  present.”  —  Legge ,  Vol.  I.  Chap.  I.  §  2. 

The  Four  Books  have  been  translated  into  French,  German,  and  English. 
Dr.  Marsliman  translated  the  Lun-Yu.  Mr.  Collie  afterward  published 
at  Calcutta  the  Four  Books.  But  within  a  few  years  the  labors  of  previous 
sinologues  have  been  almost  superseded  by  Dr.  Legge’s  splendid  work,  still 
in  process  of  publication.  We  have,  as  yet,  only  the  volumes  containing 
the  Four  Books  of  Confucius  and  his  successors,  and  a  portion  of  the  Kings. 
Dr.  Legge’s  work  is  in  Chinese  and  English,  with  copious  notes  and  ex¬ 
tracts  from  many  Chinese  commentators.  In  his  notes,  and  his  prelimi¬ 
nary  dissertations,  he  endeavors  to  do  justice  to  Confucius  and  his  doc¬ 
trines.  Perhaps  he  does  not  fully  succeed  in  this,  but  it  is  evident  that 
he  respects  the  Chinese  sage,  and  is  never  willingly  unfair  to  him.  If  to 
the  books  above  mentioned  be  added  the  works  of  Pauthier,  Stanislas 
Julien,  Mohl,  and  other  French  sinologues,  and  the  German  works  on 
the  same  subject,  we  have  a  sufficient  apparatus  for  the  study  of  Chinese 
thought. 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


49 


“  To  rule  with  equity  is  like  the  North  Star,  which  is 
fixed,  and  all  the  rest  go  round  it.” 

“  The  essence  of  knowledge  is,  having  it,  to  apply  it ; 
not  having  it,  to  confess  your  ignorance.” 

“  Worship  as  though  the  Deity  were  present.” 

“  If  my  mind  is  not  engaged  in  my  worship,  it  is  as 
though  I  worshipped  not.” 

“  Formerly,  in  hearing  men,  I  heard  their  words,  and 
gave  them  credit  for  their  conduct ;  now  I  hear  their 
words,  and  observe  their  conduct.” 

“  A  man’s  life  depends  on  virtue ;  if  a  bad  man  lives,  it 
is  only  by  good  fortune.” 

“  Some  proceed  blindly  to  action,  without  knowledge  ;  I 
hear  much,  and  select  the  best  course.” 

He  was  once  found  fault  with,  when  in  office,  for  not 
opposing  the  marriage  of  a  ruler  with  a  distant  relation, 
which  was  an  offence  against  Chinese  propriety.  He 
said :  “  I  am  a  happy  man ;  if  I  have  a  fault,  men  ob¬ 
serve  it.” 

Confucius  was  humble.  He  said :  “  I  cannot  bear  to 
hear  myself  called  equal  to  the  sages  and  the  good.  All 
that  can  be  said  of  me  is,  that  I  study  with  delight  the 
conduct  of  the  sages,  and  instruct  men  without  weariness 
therein.” 

“  The  good  man  is  serene,”  said  he,  “  the  bad  always  in 
fear.” 

“  A  good  man  regards  the  root  ;  he  fixes  the  root,  and 
all  else  flows  out  of  it.  The  root  is  filial  piety ;  the  fruit 
brotherly  love.” 

“  There  may  be  fair  words  and  an  humble  countenance 
when  there  is  little  real  virtue.” 

“  I  daily  examine  myself  in  a  threefold  manner  :  in  my 
transactions  with  men,  if  I  am  upright ;  in  my  intercourse 
with  friends,  if  I  am  faithful ;  and  whether  I  illustrate  the 
teachings  of  my  master  in  my  conduct.” 

“  Faithfulness  and  sincerity  are  the  highest  things.” 

“  When  you  transgress,  do  not  fear  to  return.” 

“  Learn  the  past  and  you  will  know  the  future.” 

The  great  principles  which  he  taught  were  chiefly  based 
on  family  affection  and  duty.  He  taught  kings  that  they 

3  D 


50 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


were  to  treat  their  subjects  as  children,  subjects  to  respect 
the  kings  as  parents ;  and  these  ideas  so  penetrated  the 
national  mind,  that  emperors  are  obliged  to  seem  to  gov¬ 
ern  thus,  even  if  they  do  not  desire  it.  Confucius  was 
a  teacher  of  reverence,  —  reverence  for  God,  respect  for 
parents,  respect  and  reverence  for  the  past  and  its  lega¬ 
cies,  for  the  great  men  and  great  ideas  of  former  times. 
He  taught  men  also  to  regard  each  other  as  brethren,  and 
even  the  golden  rule,  in  its  negative  if  not  its  positive 
form,  is  to  be  found  in  his  writings. 

Curiously  enough,  this  teacher  of  reverence  was  dis¬ 
tinguished  by  a  remarkable  lump  on  the  top  of  his  head, 
where  the  phrenologists  have  placed  the  organ  of  venera¬ 
tion.*  Booted  in  his  organization,  and  strengthened  by 
all  his  convictions,  this  element  of  adoration  seemed  to 
him  the  crown  of  the  whole  moral  nature  of  man.  But, 
while  full  of  veneration,  he  seems  to  have  been  deficient 
in  the  sense  of  spiritual  things.  A  personal  God  was  un¬ 
known  to  him  ;  so  that  his  worship  was  directed,  not  to 
God,  but  to  antiquity,  to  ancestors,  to  propriety  and  usage, 
to  the  state  as  father  and  mother  of  its  subjects,  to  the 
ruler  as  in  the  place  of  authority.  Perfectly  sincere, 
deeply  and  absolutely  assured  of  all  that  he  knew,  he  said 
nothing  he  did  not  believe.  His  power  came  not  only 
from  the  depth  and  clearness  of  his  convictions,  but  from 
the  absolute  honesty  of  his  soul. 

Lao-tse,  for  twenty-eight  years  his  contemporary, 
founder  of  one  of  the  three  existing  religions  of  China,  — * 
Tao-ism,  —  was  a  man  of  perhaps  equal  intelligence.  But 
he  was  chiefly  a  thinker ;  he  made  no  attempt  to  elevate  the 
people ;  his  purpose  was  to  repress  the  passions,  and  to 
preserve  the  soul  in  a  perfect  equanimity.  He  was  the 
Zeno  of  the  East,  founder  of  a  Chinese  stoicism.  With 
him  virtue  is  sure  of  its  reward ;  everything  is  arranged 
by  a  fixed  law.  His  disciples  afterwards  added  to  his 
system  a  thaumaturgic  element  and  an  invocation  of  de¬ 
parted  spirits,  so  that  now  it  resembles  our  modern  Spirit¬ 
ism  ;  but  the  original  doctrine  of  Lao-tse  was  rationalism 

*  “  On  tlie  top  of  his  head  was  a  remarkable  formation,  in  consequence 
of  which  he  was  named  Kew.”  —  Legge,  Yol.  I.  Chap.  YI.  (note). 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE.  51 

in  philosophy  and  stoicism  in  morals.  Confucius  is  said, 
in  a  Chinese  work,  to  have  visited  him,  and  to  have 
frankly  confessed  his  inability  to  understand  him.  “  I 
know  how  birds  fly,  how  fishes  swim,  how  animals  run. 
The  bird  may  be  shot,  the  fish  hooked,  and  the  beast 
snared.  But  there  is  the  dragon.  I  cannot  tell  how  he 
mounts  in  the  air,  and  soars  to  heaven.  To-day  I  have 
seen  the  dragon.” 

But  the  modest  man,  wTho  lived  for  others,  has  far  sur¬ 
passed  in  his  influence  this  dragon  of  intelligence.  It 
certainly  increases  our  hope  for  man,  when  we  see  how 
these  qualities  of  perfect  honesty,  good  sense,  generous 
devotion  to  the  public  good,  and  fidelity  to  the  last  in  ad¬ 
herence  to  his  work,  have  made  Confucius  during  twenty- 
three  centuries  the  daily  teacher  and  guide  of  a  third  of 
the  human  race. 

Confucius  was  eminently  distinguished  by  energy  and 
persistency.  He  did  not  stop  working  till  he  died.  His 
life  was  of  one  piece,  beautiful,  noble.  “  The  general  of 
a  large  army,”  said  he,  “  may  be  defeated,  but  you  cannot 
defeat  the  determined  mind  of  a  peasant.”  He  acted  con¬ 
formably  to  this  thought,  and  to  another  of  his  sayings. 
“  If  I  am  building  a  mountain,  and  stop  before  the  last 
basketful  of  earth  is  placed  on  the  summit,  I  have  failed 
of  my  work.  But  if  I  have  placed  but  one  basketful  on 
the  plain,  and  go  on,  I  am  really  building  a  mountain.” 

Many  beautiful  and  noble  things  are  related  concerning 
the  character  of  Confucius,  —  of  his  courage  in  the  midst 
of  danger,  of  his  humility  in  the  highest  position  of  honor. 
His  writings  and  life  have  given  the  law  to  Chinese 
thought.  He  is  the  patron  saint  of  that  great  empire. 
His  doctrine  is  the  state  religion  of  the  nation,  sustained 
by  the  whole  power  of  the  emperor  and  the  literary  body. 
His  books  are  published  every  year  by  societies  formed 
for  that  purpose,  who  distribute  them  gratuitously.  His 
descendants  enjoy  the  highest  consideration.  The  num¬ 
ber  of  temples  erected  to  his  memory  is  sixteen  hundred 
and  sixty.  One  of  them  occupies  ten  acres  of  land.  On' 
the  two  festivals  in  the  year  sacred  to  his  memory  there 
are  sacrificed  some  seventy  thousand  animals  of  different 


U.  OF  ILL  LIB. 


52 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


kinds,  and  twenty-seven  thousand  pieces  of  silk  are 
burned  on  his  altars.  Yet  his  is  a  religion  without  priests, 
liturgy,  or  public  worship,  except  on  these  two  occasions. 

§  4.  Philosophy  and  subsequent  Development  of  Con¬ 
fucianism. 

According  to  Mr.  Meadows,  the  philosophy  of  China,  in 
its  origin  and  present  aspect,  may  be  thus  briefly  de¬ 
scribed.*  Setting  aside  the  Buddhist  system  and  that 
of  Tao-ism,  which  supply  to  the  Chinese  the  element  of 
religious  worship  and  the  doctrine  of  a  supernatural  world, 
wanting  in  the  system  of  Confucius,  we  find  the  latter  as 
the  established  religion  of  the  state,  merely  tolerating  the 
others  as  suited  to  persons  of  weak  minds.  The  Confu- 
cian  system,  constantly  taught  by  the  competitive  exami¬ 
nations,  rules  the  thought  of  China.  Its  first  development 
was  from  the  birth  of  Confucius  to  the  death  of  Mencius 
(or  from  551  b.  c.  to  313  B.  c.).  Its  second  period  was 
from  the  time  of  Chow-tsze  (a.  d.  1034)  to  that  of  Choo- 
tsze  (a.  d.  1200).  The  last  of  these  is  the  real  fashioner 
of  Chinese  philosophy,  and  one  of  the  truly  great  men  of 
the  human  race.  His  works  are  chiefly  Commentaries  on 
the  Kings  and  the  Four  Books.  They  are  committed  to 
memory  by  millions  of  Chinese  who  aspire  to  pass  the 
public-service  examinations.  The  Chinese  philosophy, 
thus  established  by  Choo-tsze,  is  as  follows,^ 

There  is  one  highest,  ultimate  principle  of  all  existence, 
—  the  Tae-keih,  or  Grand  Extreme.  This  is  absolutely 
immaterial,  and  the  basis  of  the  order  of  the  universe. 
From  this  ultimate  principle,  operating  from  all  eternity, 
come  all  animate  and  inanimate  nature.  It  operates  in 
a  twofold  way,  by  expansion  and  contraction,  or  by  cease¬ 
less  active  and  passive  pulsations.  The  active  expansive 
pulsation  is  called  Yang,  the  passive  intensive  pulsation 
is  Yin,  and  the  two  may  be  called  the  Positive  and  Nega¬ 
tive  Essences  of  all  things.  When  the  active  expansive 
phase  of  the  process  has  reached  its  extreme  limit,  the  op- 

*  Meadows,  “  The  Chinese  and  their  Rebellions,”  p.  332. 

t  Meadows,  p.  342. 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


53 


eration  becomes  passive  and  intensive ;  and  from  these  vi¬ 
brations  originate  all  material  and  mortal  existences.  Cre¬ 
ation  is  therefore  a  perpetual  process,  —  matter  and  spirit 
are  opposite  results  of  the  same  force.  The  one  tends  to 
variety,  the  other  to  unity ;  and  variety  in  unity  is  a  per¬ 
manent  and  universal  law  of  being.  Man  results  from 
the  utmost  development  of  this  pulsatory  action  and  pas¬ 
sion  ;  and  man’s  nature,  as  the  highest  result,  is  perfectly 
good,  consisting  of  five  elements,  namely,  charity,  righte¬ 
ousness,  propriety,  wisdom,  and  sincerity.  These  consti¬ 
tute  the  inmost,  essential  nature  of  man ;  but  as  man 
comes  in  contact  with  the  outward  world  evil  arises  by 
the  conflict.  When  man  follows  the  dictates  of  his  nature 
his  actions  are  good,  and  harmony  results.  When  he  is 
unduly  influenced  by  the  outward  world  his  actions  are 
evil,  and  discord  intervenes.  The  holy  man  is  one  who 
has  an  instinctive,  inward  sight  of  the  ultimate  principle 
in  its  twofold  operation  (or  what  we  should  call  the  sight 
of  God,  the  beatific  vision),  and  who  therefore  spontane¬ 
ously  and  easily  obeys  his  nature.  Hence  all  his  thoughts 
are  perfectly  wise,  his  actions  perfectly  good,  and  his 
words  perfectly  true.  Confucius  was  the  last  of  these 
holy  men.  The  infallible  authority  of  the  Sacred  Books 
results  from  the  fact  that  their  writers,  being  holy  men, 
had  an  instinctive  perception  of  the  working  of  the  ulti¬ 
mate  principle. 

All  Confucian  philosophy  is  pervaded  by  these  princi¬ 
ples  :  first,  that  example  is  omnipotent ;  secondly,  that  to 
secure  the  safety  of  the  empire,  you  must  secure  the  hap¬ 
piness  of  the  people ;  thirdly,  that  by  solitary  persistent 
thought  one  may  penetrate  at  last  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
essence  of  things  ;  fourthly,  that  the  object  of  all  govern¬ 
ment  is  to  make  the  people  virtuous  and  contented. 

§  5.  Lao-tse  and  Tao-ism. 

One  of  the  three  religious  systems  of  China  is  that  of 
the  Tao,  the  other  two  being  that  of  Confucius,  and  that  of 
Buddhism  in  its  Chinese  form.  The  difficulty  in  under¬ 
standing  Tao-ism  comes  from  its  appearing  under  three 


54 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


entirely  distinct  forms :  (1)  as  a  philosophy  of  the  absolute 
or  unconditioned,  in  the  great  work  of  the  Tse-Lao,  or 
old  teacher ;  *  (2)  as  a  system  of  morality  of  the  utilitarian 
school,  -f-  which  resolves  duty  into  prudence ;  and  (3)  as 
a  system  of  magic,  connected  with  the  belief  in  spirits. 
In  the  Tao-te-king  we  have  the  ideas  of  Lao  himself, 
which  we  will  endeavor  to  state ;  premising  that  they 
are  considered  very  obscure  and  difficult  even  by  the  Chi¬ 
nese  commentators. 

The  Tao  (§  1)  is  the  unnamable,  and  is  the  origin  of 
heaven  and  earth.  As  that  which  can  be  named,  it  is 
the  mother  of  all  things.  These  two  are  essentially  one. 
Being  and  not-being  are  born  from  each  other  (§  2).  The 
Tao  is  empty  but  inexhaustible  (§  4),  is  pure,  is  profound, 
and  was  before  the  Gods.  It  is  invisible,  not  the  object 
of  perception,  it  returns  into  not-being  (§§  14,  40).  It 
is  vague,  confused,  and  obscure  (§  25,  21).  It  is  little  and 
strong,  universally  present,  and  all  beings  return  into  it 
(§  32).  It  is  without  desires,  great  (§  34).  All  things  are 
born  of  being,  being  is  born  of  not-being  (§  40). 

From  these  and  similar  statements  it  would  appear  that 
the  philosophy  of  the  Tao-te-king  is  that  of  absolute 
being,  or  the  identity  of  being  and  not-being.  In  this 
point  it  anticipated  Hegel  by  twenty-three  centuries,  j  It 
teaches  that  the  absolute  is  the  source  of  being  and  of 
not-being.  Being  is  essence,  not-being  is  existence.  The 
first  is  the  noumenal,  the  last  the  phenomenal. 

As  being  is  the  source  of  not-being  (§  40),  by  iden¬ 
tifying  one’s  self  with  being  one  attains  to  all  that  is 
not-being,  i.  e.  to  all  that  exists.  Instead,  therefore,  of 
aiming  at  acquiring  knowledge,  the  wise  man  avoids  it ; 
instead  of  acting,  he  refuses  to  act.  He  “feeds  his  mind 
with  a  wise  passiveness.”  (§  16.)  “  J\rot  to  act  is  the 

source  of  all  power,”  is  a  thesis  continually  present  to 
the  mind  of  Lao  (§§  3,  23,  38, 43,  48,  63).  The  wise  man 


*  “  Le  Tao-te-king,  le  livre  de  la  voie  et  de  la  vertu,  compose  dans  le 
vie  siecle  avant  l'ere  Cliretienne,  par  le  pliilosophe  Lao-tseu,  traduit  par 
Stanislas  Julien.  Paris,  1842.” 
t  “Le  livre  des  Recompenses  et  des  Peines.  Julien,  1835.” 

J  “Seyn  and  Niclits  ist  Dasselbe.”  Hegel. 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


55 


is  like  water  (§§  8,  78),  which  seems  weak  and  is  strong; 
which  yields,  seeks  the  lowest  place,  which  seems  the 
softest  thing  and  breaks  the  hardest  thing.  To  be  wise 
one  must  renounce  wisdom,  to  be  good  one  must  re¬ 
nounce’  justice  and  humanity,  to  be  learned  one  must 
renounce  knowledge  (§§  19,  20,  45),  and  must  have  no 
desires  (§§  8,  22),  must  detach  one’s  self  from  all  things 
(§  20)  and  be  like  a  new-born  babe.  From  everything 
proceeds  its  opposite,  the  easy  from  the  difficult,  the 
difficult  from  the  easy,  the  long  from  the  short,  the  high 
from  the  low,  ignorance  from  knowledge,  knowledge  from 
ignorance,  the  first  from  the  last,  the  last  from  the  first. 
These  antagonisms  are  mutually  related  by  the  hidden 
principle  of  the  Tao  (§§  2,  27).  Nothing  is  independent 
or  capable  of  existing  save  through  its  opposite.  The 
good  man  and  bad  man  are  equally  necessary  to  each 
other  (§  27).  To  desire  aright  is  not  to  desire  (§  64). 
The  saint  can  do  great  things  because  he  does  not  at¬ 
tempt  to  do  them  (§  63).  The  unwarlike  man  con¬ 
quers.*  He  who  submits  to  others  controls  them.  By 
this  negation  of  all  things  we  come  into  possession  of  all 
things  (§  68).  Not  to  act  is,  therefore,  the  secret  of  all 
power  (§§  3,  23,  38,  43,  48,  63). 

We  find  here  the  same  doctrine  of  opposites  which 
appears  in  the  Phsedo,  and  which  has  come  up  again  and 
again  in  philosophy.  We  shall  find  something  like  it 
in  the  Sankhya-karika  of  the  Hindoos.  The  Duad,  with 
the  Monad  brooding  behind  it,  is  the  fundamental  prin¬ 
ciple  of  the  Avesta. 

The  result,  thus  far,  is  to  an  active  passivity.  Lao 
teaches  that  not  to  act  involves  the  highest  energy  of 
being,  and  leads  to  the  greatest  results.  By  not  acting 
one  identifies  himself  with  the  Tao,  and  receives  all  its 
power.  And  here  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  Chinese 
philosopher  was  pursuing  the  same  course  with  Sakya- 
Muni.  The  Tao  of  the  one  is  the  Nirvana  of  the  other. 
The  different  motive  in  each  mind  constitutes  the  differ¬ 
ence  of  their  career.  Sakya-Muni  sought  Nirvana,  or 

*  “  The  meek  shall  inherit  the  earth.” 


56 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


the  absolute,  the  pure  knowledge,  in  order  to  escape  from 
evil  and  to  conquer  it.  Lao  sought  it,  as  his  book  shows, 
to  attain  power.  At  this  point  the  two  systems  diverge. 
Buddhism  is  generous,  benevolent,  humane ;  it  seeks  to 
help  others.  Tao-ism  seeks  its  own.  Hence  the  selfish 
morality  which  pervades  the  Book  of  Be  wards  and  Pun¬ 
ishments.  Every  good  action  has  its  reward  attached  to 
it.  Hence  also  the  degradation  of  the  system  into  pure 
magic  and  spiritism.  Buddhism,  though  its  course  runs 
so  nearly  parallel,  always  retains  in  its  scheme  of  merits 
a  touch  of  generosity. 

We  find  thus,  in  the  Tao-te-king,  the  element  after¬ 
wards  expanded  into  the  system  of  utilitarian  and  eudae- 
monic  ethics  in  the  Book  of  Be  wards  and  Punishments. 
We  also  can  trace  in  it  the  source  of  the  magical  ten¬ 
dency  in  Tao-ism.  The  principle,  that  by  putting  one’s 
self  into  an  entirely  passive  condition  one  can  enter  into 
communion  with  the  unnamed  Tao,  and  so  acquire  power 
over  nature,  naturally  tends  to  magic.  Precisely  the 
same  course  of  thought  led  to  similar  results  in  the  case 
of  Neo-Platonism.  The  ecstatic  union  with  the  divine 
element  in  all  nature,  which  Plotinus  attained  four  times 
in  his  life,  resulted  from  an  immediate  sight  of  God.  In 
this  sight  is  all  truth  given  to  the  soul.  The  unity,  says 
Plotinus,  which  produces  ail  things,  is  an  essence  behind 
both  substance  and  form.  Through  this  essential  being 
all  souls  commune  and  interact,  and  magic  is  this  inter¬ 
action  of  soul  upon  soul  through  the  soul  of  souls,  with 

which  one  becomes  identified  in  the  ecstatic  union.  A 

man  therefore  can  act  on  demons  and  control  spirits  by 
theurgie  rites.  Julian,  that  ardent  Neo-Platonician,  was 
surrounded  by  diviners,  hierophants,  and  aruspices.* 

In  the  Tao-te-king  (§§  50,  55,  56,  etc.)  it  is  said  that 
he  who  knows  the  Tao  need  not  fear  the  bite  of  serpents 
nor  the  jaws  of  wild  beasts,  nor  the  claws  of  birds  of 

prey.  He  is  inaccessible  to  good  and  to  evil.  He  need 

fear  neither  rhinoceros  nor  tiger.  In  battle  he  needs 
neither  cuirass  nor  sword.  The  tiger  cannot  tear  him,  the 

*  See  “La  Magie  et  l’Astrologie,  par  Alfred  Maury.” 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE.  57 

soldier  cannot  wound  him.  He  is  invulnerable  and  safe 
from  death.* 

If  Neo-Platonism  had  not  had  for  its  antagonist  the 
vital  force  of  Christianity,  it  might  have  established  itself 
as  a  permanent  form  of  religion  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
as  Tao-ism  has  in  China.  I  have  tried  to  show  how  the 
later  form  of  this  Chinese  system  has  come  naturally 
from  its  principles,  and  how  a  philosophy  of  the  absolute 

may  have  degenerated  into  a  system  of  necromancy. 

* 

§  6.  Religious  Character  of  the  “  Kings.” 

We  have  seen  that,  in  the  philosophy  of  the  Con- 
fucians,  the  ultimate  principle  is  not  necessarily  iden¬ 
tical  with  a  living,  intelligent,  and  personal  God.  Nor 
did  Confucius,  when  he  speaks  of  Teen,  or  Heaven,  ex¬ 
press  any  faith  in  such  a  being.  He  neither  asserted 
nor  denied  a  Supreme  God.  His  worship  and  prayer 
did  not  necessarily  imply  such  a  faith.  It  was  the  prayer 
of  reverence  addressed  to  some  sacred,  mysterious,  un¬ 
known  power,  above  and  behind  all  visible  things.  What 
that  power  was,  he,  with  his  supreme  candor,  did  not  ven¬ 
ture  to  intimate.  But  in  the  She-King  a  personal  God  is 
addressed.  The  oldest  books  recognize  a  Divine  person. 
They  teach  that  there  is  one  Supreme  Being,  who  is  omni¬ 
present,  who  sees  all  things,  and  has  an  intelligence  which 
nothing  can  escape,  — that  he  wishes  men  to  live  together 
in  peace  and  brotherhood.  He  commands  not  only  right  ac¬ 
tions,  but  pure  desires  and  thoughts ;  that  we  should  watch 
ail  our  behavior,  and  maintain  a  grave  and  majestic  de¬ 
meanor,  “  which  is  like  a  palace  in  which  virtue  resides  ”  ; 
but  especially  that  we  should  guard  the  tongue.  “  For  a 
blemish  may  be  taken  out  of  a  diamond  by  carefully  polish¬ 
ing  it ;  but,  if  your  words  have  the  least  blemish,  there  is 
no  way  to  efface  that.”  “  Humility  is  the  solid  foundation 
of  all  the  virtues.”  “  To  acknowledge  one’s  incapacity  is 
the  way  to  be  soon  prepared  to  teach  others ;  for  from  the 

*  Was  it  some  pale  reflection  of  this  Oriental  philosophy  which  took 
form  in  the  ode  of  Horace,  “Integer  vitae  ”  (i.  22),  in  which  he  describes 
the  portentous  wolf  which  fled  from  him  ? 


58 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


moment  that  a  man  is  no  longer  full  of  himself,  nor  puffed 
up  with  empty  pride,  whatever  good  he  learns  in  the 
morning  he  practises  before  night.”  “  Heaven  penetrates 
to  the  bottom  of  our  hearts,  like  light  into  a  dark  cham¬ 
ber.  We  must  conform  ourselves  to  it,  till  we  are  like 
two  instruments  of  music  tuned  to  the  same  pitch.  We 
must  join  ourselves  with  it,  like  two  tablets  which  appear 
but  one.  We  must  receive  its  gifts  the  very  moment  its 
hand  is  open  to  bestow.  Our  irregular  passions  shut  up 
the  door  of  our  souls  against  God.v 

Such  are  the  teachings  of  these  Kings,  which  are  un¬ 
questionably  among  the  oldest  existing  productions  of 
the  human  mind.  In  the  days  of  Confucius  they  seem 
to  have  been  nearly  forgotten,  and  their  precepts  wholly 
neglected.  Confucius  revised  them,  added  his  own  ex¬ 
planations  and  comments,  and,  as  one  of  the  last  acts  of 
his  life,  called  his  disciples  around  him  and  made  a 
solemn  dedication  of  these  books  to  Heaven.  He  erected 
an  altar  on  which  he  placed  them,  adored  God,  and  re¬ 
turned  thanks  upon  his  knees  in  a  humble  manner  for 
having  had  life  and  health  granted  him  to  finish  this 
undertaking. 

§  7.  Confucius  and  Christianity.  Character  of  the  Chinese. 

It  were  easy  to  find  defects  in  the  doctrine  of  Con¬ 
fucius.  It  has  little  to  teach  of  God  or  immortality.  But 
if  the  law  of  Moses,  which  taught  nothing  of  a  future  life, 
was  a  preparation  for  Christianity ;  if,  as  the  early  Chris¬ 
tian  Fathers  asserted,  Greek  philosophy  was  also  a  school¬ 
master  to  bring  men  to  Christ ;  who  can  doubt  tliat  the 
truth  and  purity  in  the  teachings  of  Confucius  were  prov¬ 
identially  intended  to  lead  this  great  nation  in  the  right 
direction  ?  Confucius  is  a  Star  in  the  East,  to  lead  his 
people  to  Christ.  One  of  the  most  authentic  of  his  say¬ 
ings  is  this,  that  “  in  the  West  the  true  Saint  must  be 
looked  for  and  found.”  He  had  a  perception,  such  as 
truly  great  men  have  often  had,  of  some  one  higher  than 
himself,  who  was  to  come  after  him.  We  cannot  doubt, 
therefore,  that  God,  who  forgets  none  of  his  children,  has 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


59 


given  this  teacher  to  the  swarming  millions  of  China  to 
lead  them  on  till  they  are  ready  for  a  higher  light.  And 
certainly  the  temporal  prosperity  and  external  virtues  of 
this  nation,  and  their  long-continued  stability  amid  the 
universal  changes  of  the  world,  are  owing  in  no  small  de¬ 
gree  to  the  lessons  of  reverence  for  the  past,  of  respect  for 
knowledge,  of  peace  and  order,  and  especially  of  filial  piety, 
which  he  inculcated.  In  their  case,  if  in  no  other,  has 
been  fulfilled  the  promise  of  the  divine  commandment, 
“  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother,  that  thy  days  may 
be  long  in  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  givetli  thee.” 

In  comparing  the  system  of  Confucius  with  Christian¬ 
ity,  it  appears  at  once  that  Christianity  differs  from  this 
system,  as  from  most  others,  in  its  greater  completeness. 
Jesus  says  to  the  Chinese  philosopher,  as  he  said  to  the 
Jewish  law,  “I  have  not  come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil.” 
He  fulfils  the  Confucian  reverence  for  the  past  by  adding 
hope  for  the  future  ;  he  fulfils  its  stability  by  progress,  its 
faith  in  man  with  faith  in  God,  its  interest  in  this  world 
with  the  expectation  of  another,  its  sense  of  time  with 
that  of  eternity.  Confucius  aims  at  peace,  order,  out¬ 
ward  prosperity,  virtue,  and  good  morals.  All  this  be¬ 
longs  also  to  Christianity,  but  Christianity  adds  a  moral 
enthusiasm,  a  faith  in  the  spiritual  world,  a  hope  of  im¬ 
mortal  life,  a  sense  of  the  Fatherly  presence  of  God.  So 
that  here,  as  before,  we  find  that  Christianity  does  not 
exclude  other  religions,  but  includes  them,  and  is  distin¬ 
guished  by  being  deeper,  higher,  broader,  and  more  far- 
reaching  than  they. 

A  people  with  such  institutions  and  such  a  social  life 
as  we  have  described  cannot  be  despised,  and  to  call  them 
uncivilized  is  as  absurd  in  us  as  it  is  in  them  to  call 
Europeans  barbarians.  They  are  a  good,  intelligent,  and 
happy  people.  Lieutenant  Forbes,  who  spent  five  years 
in  China,  — from  1842  to  1847,  —  says  :  “  I  found  myself 
in  the  midst  of  as  amiable,  kind,  and  hospitable  a  popula¬ 
tion  as  any  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  as  far  ahead  of  us  in 
some  things  as  behind  us  in  others.”  As  to  the  charge 
of  dishonesty  brought  against  them  by  those  who  judge 
the  whole  nation  by  the  degraded  population  of  the  sub- 


j 


60 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


urbs  of  Canton,  Forbes  says,  “My  own  property  suffered 
more  in  landing  in  England  and  passing  the  British  fron¬ 
tier  than  in  my  whole  sojourn  in  China.” 

“There  is  no  nation,”  says  the  Jesuit  DuHalde,  “more 
laborious  and  temperate  than  this.  They  are  inured  to 
hardships  from  their  infancy,  which  greatly  contributes  to 

preserve  the  innocence  of  their  manners . They  are 

of  a  mild,  tractable,  and  humane  disposition.”  He  thinks 
them  exceedingly  modest,  and  regards  the  love  of  gain 
as  their  chief  vice.  “  Interest,”  says  he,  “  is  the  spring  of 
all  their  actions ;  for,  when  the  least  profit  offers,  they 
despise  all  difficulties  and  undertake  the  most  painful 
journeys  to  procure  it.”  This  may  be  true  ;  but  if  a  Chi¬ 
nese  traveller  in  America  should  give  the  same  account  of 
us,  would  it  not  be  quite  as  true  ?  One  of  the  latest  writ¬ 
ers  —  the  author  of  “  The  Middle  Kingdom  ”  —  accuses 
the  Chinese  of  gross  sensuality,  mendacity,  and  dishonesty. 
N o  doubt  these  are  besetting  sins  with  them,  as  with  all 
nations  who  are  educated  under  a  system  which  makes 
submission  to  authority  the  chief  virtue.  But  then  this 
writer  lived  only  at  Canton  and  Macao,  and  saw  person¬ 
ally  only  the  refuse  of  the  people.  He  admits  that  “  they 
have  attained,  by  the  observance  of  peace  and  good  order, 
to  a  high  security  of  life  and  property ;  that  the  various 
classes  are  linked  together  in  a  remarkably  homogeneous 
manner  by  the  diffusion  of  education ;  and  that  property 
and  industry  receive  their  just  reward  of  food,  raiment, 
and  shelter.”  He  also  reminds  us  that  the  religion  of 
China  differs  from  all  Pagan  religions  in  this,  that  it  en¬ 
courages  neither  cruelty  nor  sensuality.  No  human  vic¬ 
tims  have  ever  been  offered  on  its  altars,  and  those 
licentious  rites  which  have  appeared  in  so  many  religions 
have  never  disgraced  its  pure  worship. 

The  Chinese  citizen  enjoys  a  degree  of  order,  peace,  and 
comfort  unknown  elsewhere  in  Asia.  “  He  can  hold  and 
sell  landed  property  with  a  facility,  certainty,  and  secu¬ 
rity  which  is  absolute  perfection  compared  with  the  nature 
of  English  dealings  of  the  same  kind.”  *  He  can  traverse 
the  country  for  two  thousand  miles  unquestioned  by  any 


*  Meadows,  p.  28. 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


61 


official.  He  can  follow  what  occupation  he  pleases.  He 
can  quit  his  country  and  re-enter  it  without  a  passport. 
The  law  of  primogeniture  does  not  exist.  The  emperor 
appoints  his  heir,  hut  a  younger  son  quite  as  often  as  an 
elder  one.  The  principle  that  no  man  is  entitled  by  birth 
to  rule  over  them  is  better  known  to  the  three  hundred 
and  sixty  millions  of  China  than  to  the  twenty-seven  mil¬ 
lions  of  Great  Britain  that  they  have  a  right  to  a  trial  by 
their  peers.*  The  principle  of  Chinese  government  is  to 
persuade  rather  than  to  compel,  to  use  moral  means  rather 
than  physical.  This  rests  on  the  fundamental  belief  in 
human  goodness.  For,  as  Mr.  Meadows  justly  observes  : 
“  The  theory  that  man’s  nature  is  radically  vicious  is  the 
true  psychical  basis  of  despotic  or  physical-force  govern¬ 
ment  ;  while  the  theory  that  man’s  nature  is  radically 
good  is  the  basis  of  free  or  moral-force  government.”  The 
Chinese  government  endeavors  to  be  paternal.  It  has  re¬ 
fused  to  lay  a  tax  on  opium,  because  that  would  counte¬ 
nance  the  sale  of  it,  though  it  might  derive  a  large  income 
from  such  a  tax.  The  sacred  literature  of  the  Chinese  is 
perfectly  free  from  everything  impure  or  offensive.  There 
is  not  a  line  but  might  be  read  aloud  in  any  family  circle 
in  England.  All  immoral  ceremonies  in  idol  worship  are 
forbidden.  M.  Hue  says  that  the  birth  of  a  daughter  is 
counted  a  disaster  in  China  ;  but  well-informed  travellers 
tell  us  that  fathers  go  about  with  little  daughters  on  their 
arms,  as  proud  and  pleased  as  a  European  father  could  be. 

Slavery  and  concubinage  exist  in  China,  and  the  hus¬ 
band  has  absolute  power  over  his  wife,  even  of  life  and 
death.  These  customs  tend  to  demoralize  the  Chinese, 
and  are  a  source  of  great  evil.  Woman  is  the  slave  of 
man.  The  exception  to  this  is  in  the  case  of  a  mother. 
She  is  absolute  in  her  household,  and  mothers,  in  China, 
command  universal  reverence.  If  an  officer  asks  leave 
of  absence  to  visit  his  mother  it  must  be  granted  him. 
A  mother  may  order  an  official  to  take  her  son  to 
prison,  and  she  must  be  obeyed.  As  a  wife  without 
children  woman  is  a  slave,  but  as  a  mother  with  grown- 
up  sons  she  is  a  monarch. 

*  Meadows,  p.  18. 


62 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


§  8.  The  Tae-ping  Insurrection. 

Two  extraordinary  events  have  occurred  in  our  day  in 
China,  the  results  of  which  may  be  of  the  utmost  impor¬ 
tance  to  the  nation  and  to  mankind.  The  one  is  the  Tae- 
ping  insurrection,  the  other  the  diplomatic  mission  of  Mr. 
Burlingame  to  the  Western  world.  Whatever  may  he  the 
immediate  issue  of  the  great  insurrection  of  our  day 
against  the  Tartar  dynasty,  it  will  remain  a  phenomenon 
of  the  utmost  significance.  There  is  no  doubt,  notwith¬ 
standing  the  general  opinion  to  the  contrary,  that  it 
has  been  a  religious  movement,  proceeding  from  a  single 
mind  deeply  moved  by  the  reading  of  the  Bible.  The 
hostility  of  the  Chinese  to  the  present  Mantclioo  Tartar 
monarchs  no  doubt  aided  it ;  but  there  has  been  in  it  an 
element  of  power  from  the  beginning,  derived,  like  that  of 
the  Puritans,  from  its  religious  enthusiasm.  Its  leader, 
the  Heavenly  Prince,  Hung-sew-tseuen,  son  of  a  poor  peas¬ 
ant  living  thirty  miles  northeast  of  Canton,  received  a 
tract,  containing  extracts  from  the  Chinese  Bible  of  Dr. 
Morison,  from  a  Chinese  tract  distributor  in  the  streets  of 
Canton.  This  was  in  1833,  when  he  was  about  twenty 
years  of  age.  He  took  the  book  home,  looked  over  it 
carelessly,  and  threw  it  aside.  Disappointed  of  his  de¬ 
gree  at  two  competitive  examinations,  he  fell  sick,  and 
saw  a  vision  of  an  old  man,  saying  :  “  I  am  the  Creator  of 
all  things.  Go  and  do  my  work.”  After  this  vision  six 
years  passed  by,  when  the  English  war  broke  out,  and  the 
English  fleet  took  the  Chinese  forts  in  the  river  of  Canton. 
Such  a  great  national  calamity  indicated,  according  to 
Chinese  ideas,  something  rotten  in  the  government ;  and 
such  success  on  the  part  of  the  English  showed  that,  in 
some  way,  they  were  fulfilling  the  will  of  Heaven.  This 
led  Hung-sew-tseuen  to  peruse  again  his  Christian  books ; 
and  alone,  with  no  guide,  he  became  a  sincere  believer  in 
Christ,  after  a  fashion  of  his  own.  God  was  the  Creator 
of  all  things,  and  the  Supreme  Father.  Jesus  was  the 
Elder  Brother  and  heavenly  Teacher  of  mankind.  Idol¬ 
atry  was  to  be  overthrown,  virtue  to  be  practised.  Hung- 
sew-tseuen  believed  that  the  Bible  confirmed  his  former 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


G3 


visions.  He  accepted  his  mission  and  began  to  make  con¬ 
verts.  All  his  converts  renounced  idolatry,  and  gave  up 
the  worship  of  Confucius.  They  travelled  to  and  fro 
teaching,  and  formed  a  society  of  God-worshippers.”  The 
first  convert,  Fung-yun-san,  became  its  most  ardent  mis¬ 
sionary  and  its  disinterested  preacher.  Hung-sew-tseuen 
returned  home,  went  to  Canton,  and  there  met  Mr.  Boberts, 
an  American  missionary,  who  was  induced  by  false  charges 
to  refuse  him  Christian  baptism.  Eut  he,  without  being 
offended  with  Mr.  Eoberts,  went  home  and  taught  his 
converts  how  to  baptize  themselves.  The  society  of 
“  God- worshippers  ”  increased  in  number.  Some  of  them 
were  arrested  for  destroying  idols,  and  among  them  Fung- 
yun-san,  who,  however,  on  his  way  to  prison,  converted 
the  policemen  by  his  side.  These  new  converts  set  him  at 
liberty  and  went  away  with  him  as  his  disciples.  Various 
striking  phenomena  occurred  in  this  society.  Men  fell 
into  a  state  of  ecstasy  and  delivered  exhortations.  Sick 
persons  were  cured  by  the  power  of  prayer.  The  teach¬ 
ings  of  these  ecstatics  were  tested  by  Scripture  ;  if  found 
to  agree  therewith,  they  were  accepted  ;  if  not,  rejected. 

It  was  in  October,  1850,  that  this  religious  movement 
assumed  a  political  form.  A  large  body  of  persons,  in  a 
state  of  chronic  rebellion  against  the  Chinese  authorities, 
had  fled  into  the  district,  and  joined  the  “  God-worship- 
pers.”  Pursued  by  the  imperial  soldiers,  they  were  pro¬ 
tected  against  them.  Hence  war  began.  The  leaders  of 
the  religious  movement  found  themselves  compelled  to 
choose  between  submission  and  resistance.  They  resisted, 
and  the  great  insurrection  began.  But  in  China  an  insur¬ 
rection  against  the  dynasty  is  in  the  natural  order  of 
things.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  to  be  a  part  of  the  consti¬ 
tution.  By  the  Sacred  Books,  taught  in  all  the  schools 
and  made  a  part  of  the  examination  papers,  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  people  to  overthrow  any  bad  government.  The 
Chinese  have  no  power  to  legislate,  do  not  tax  themselves, 
and  the  government  is  a  pure  autocracy.  But  it  is  not  a 
despotism  ;  for  old  usages  make  a  constitution,  which  the 
government  must  respect  or  be  overthrown.  “  The  right 
to  rebel,”  says  Mr.  Meadows,  “  is  in  China  a  chief  element 


64 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


of  national  stability.”  The  Tae-ping  (or  UniveTsal-Peace) 
Insurrection  has  shown  its  religious  character  throughout. 
It  has  not  been  cruel,  except  in  retaliation.  At  the  tak¬ 
ing  of  Nan-king  orders  were  given  to  put  all  the  women 
together  and  protect  them,  and  any  one  doing  them  an 
injury  was  punished  with  death.  Before  the  attack  on 
Nan-king  a  large  body  of  the  insurgents  knelt  down  and 
prayed,  and  then  rose  and  fought,  like  the  soldiers  of 
Cromwell.  The  aid  of  a  large  body  of  rebels  was  refused, 
because  they  did  not  renounce  idolatry,  and  continued  to 
allow  the  use  of  opium.  Hymns  of  praise  to  the  Heavenly 
Bather  and  Elder  Brother  were  chanted  in  the  camp. 
And  the  head  of  the  insurrection  distinctly  announced 
that,  in  case  it  succeeded,  the  Bible  would  be  substituted 
in  all  public  examinations  for  office  in  the  place  of  Con¬ 
fucius.  This  would  cause  the  Bible  to  be  at  once  studied 
by  all  candidates  for  office  among  three  hundred  and  sixty 
millions  of  people.  It  would  constitute  the  greatest  event 
in  the  history  of  Christianity  since  the  days  of  Constan¬ 
tine,  or  at  least  since  the  conversion  of  the  Teutonic  races. 
The  rebellion  has  probably  failed ;  but  great  results  must 
follow  this  immense  interest  in  Christianity  in  the  heart 
of  China,  —  an  interest  awakened  by  no  Christian  mission, 
whether  Catholic  or  Protestant,  but  coming  down  into 
this  great  nation  like  the  rain  from  heaven. 

In  the  “  History  of  the  Ti-Ping  Revolution  ”  (published 
in  London  in  1866),  written  by  an  Englishman  who  held 
a  command  among  the  Ti-Pings,  there  is  given  a  full,  in¬ 
teresting,  and  apparently  candid  account  of  the  religious 
and  moral  character  of  this  great  movement,  from  which 
I  take  the  following  particulars  :  — 

“  I  have  probably,”  says  this  writer,*  “  had  a  much  greater 

*  Ti-Ping  Tien-Kwoh  ;  The  History  of  the  Ti-Ping  Revolution,  by 
Lin-Le,  special  agent  of  the  Ti-Ping  General-in-Chief,  &c.  Davy  ancl 
Son,  London,  1866.  Yol.  I.  p.  306. 

Mr.  Andrew  Wilson,  author  of  “  The  Ever-Victorious  Army”  (Black¬ 
wood,  1868)',  speaks  with  much  contempt  of  Lin-Le’ s  book.  In  a  note 
(page  389)  he  brings  certain  charges  against  the  author.  Mr.  Wilson's 
book  is  written  to  glorify  Gordon,  Wood,  and  others,  who  accepted  rov¬ 
ing  commissions  against  the  Ti-Pings  ;  and  of  course  he  takes  their  view 
of  the  insurrection.  The  accusations  he  brings  against  Lin-Le,  even  if 
correct,  do  not  detract  from  the  apparent  accuracy  of  that  writer’s  story, 
nor  from  the  weight  of  his  arguments. 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


65 


experience  of  the  Ti-Ping  religious  practices  than  any 
other  European,  and  as  a  Protestant  Christian  I  have 
never  yet  found  occasion  to  condemn  their  form  of  wor¬ 
ship.  The  most  important  part  of  their  faith  is  the  Holy 
Bible,  —  Old  and  New  Testaments  entire.  These  have 
been  printed  and  circulated  gratuitously  by  the  govern¬ 
ment  through  the  whole  population  of  the  Ti-Ping  juris¬ 
diction.”  Abstracts  of  the  Bible,  put  into  verse,  were 
circulated  and  committed  to  memory.  Their  form  of  wor¬ 
ship  was  assimilated  to  Protestantism.  The  Sabbath  was 
kept  religiously  on  the  seventh  day.  Three  cups  of  tea 
were  put  on  the  altar  on  that  day  as  an  offering  to  the 
Trinity.  They  celebrated  the  communion  once  a  month 
by  partaking  of  a  cup  of  grape  wine.  Every  one  admitted 
to  their  fellowship  was  baptized,  after  an  examination  and 
confession  of  sins.  The  following  was  the  form  pre¬ 
scribed  in  the  “  Book  of  Beligious  Precepts  of  the  Ti-Ping 
Dynasty  ”  :  —  * 

Forms  to  be  observed  when  Men  wish  to  forsake  their  Sins. 
—  They  must  kneel  down  in  God’s  presence,  and  ask  him 
to  forgive  their  sins.  They  may  then  take  either  a  basin 
of  water  and  wash  themselves,  or  go  to  the  river  and  bathe 
themselves  ;  after  which  they  must  continue  daily  to  sup¬ 
plicate  Divine  favor,  and  the  Holy  Spirit’s  assistance  to 
renew  their  hearts,  saying  grace  at  every  meal,  keeping 
holy  the  Sabbath  day,  and  obeying  all  God’s  command¬ 
ments,  especially  avoiding  idolatry.  They  may  then  be 
accounted  the  children  of  God,  and  their  souls  will  go  to 
Heaven  when  they  die.” 

The  prayer  offered  by  the  recipient  of  Baptism  was  as 
follows :  — 

“  I  (A.  B.),  kneeling  down  with  a  true  heart,  repent  of 
my  sins,  and  pray  the  Heavenly  Father,  the  great  God,  of 
his  abundant  mercy,  to  forgive  my  former  sins  of  ignorance 
in  repeatedly  breaking  the  Divine  commands,  earnestly 
beseeching  him  also  to  grant  me  repentance  and  newness 
of  life,  that  my  soul  may  go  to  Heaven,  while  I  henceforth 
truly  forsake  my  former  ways,  abandoning  idolatry  and 

*  Ibid.,  Yol.  I.  p.  315.  These  forms  are  given,  says  the  writer,  partly 
from  memory. 


66 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


all  corrupt  practices,  in  obedience  to  God’s  commands.  I 
also  pray  that  God  would  give  me  his  Holy  Spirit  to 
change  my  wicked  heart,  deliver  me  from  all  temptation, 
and  grant  me  his  favor  and  protection,  bestowing  on  me 
food  and  raiment,  and  exemption  from  calamity,  peace  in 
this  world  and  glory  in  the  next,  through  the  mercies  of 
our  Saviour  and  Elder  Brother,  Jesus,  who  redeemed  us 
from  sin.” 

In  every  household  throughout  the  Ti-Ping  territory 
the  following  translation  of  the  Lord’s  Prayer  was  hung 
up  for  the  use  of  the  children,  printed  in  large  black  char¬ 
acters  on  a  white  board  :  — 

"  Supreme  Lord,  our  Heavenly  Father,  forgive  all  our 
sins  that  we  have  committed  in  ignorance,  rebelling  against 
thee.  Bless  us,  brethren  and  sisters,  thy  little  children. 
Give  us  our  daily  food  and  raiment ;  keep  from  us  all 
calamities  and  afflictions  ;  that  in  this  world  we  may  have 
peace  and  finally  ascend  to  heaven  to  enjoy  everlasting 
happiness.  We  pray  thee  to  bless  our  brethren  and  sisters 
of  all  nations.  We  ask  these  things  for  the  redeeming 
merits  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  our  heavenly  brother, 
Jesus.  We  also  pray.  Heavenly  Father,  that  thy  will 
may  be  done  on  earth  as  in  heaven :  for  thine  are  all  the 
kingdoms,  glory,  and  power.  Amen.” 

The  writer  says  he  has  frequently  watched  the  Ti-Ping 
women  teaching  the  children  this  prayer ;  “  and  often,  on 
entering  a  house,  the  children  ran  up  to  me,  and  pulling 
me  toward  the  board,  began  to  read  the  prayer.” 

The  seventh  day  was  kept  very  strictly.  As  soon  as 
midnight  sounded  on  Friday,  all  the  people  throughout 
Ti-Pingdom  were  summoned  to  worship.  Two  other  ser¬ 
vices  were  held  during  the  day.  Each  opened  with  a 
doxology  to  God,  Jesus,  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  Then  was 
sung  this  hymn :  — 

“  The  true  doctrine  is  different  from  the  doctrine  of  this  world  ; 

It  saves  men’s  souls  and  gives  eternal  bliss. 

The  wise  receive  it  instantly  with  joy  ; 

The  foolish,  wakened  by  it,  find  the  way  to  Heaven. 

Our  Heavenly  Father,  of  his  great  mercy, 

Did  not  spare  his  own  Son,  but  sent  him  down 

To  give  his  life  to  redeem  sinners. 

When  men  know  this,  and  repent,  they  may  go  to  Heaven.” 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


67 


The  rest  of  the  services  consisted  in  a  chapter  of  the 
Bible  read  by  the  minister  ;  a  creed,  repeated  by  the  con¬ 
gregation  standing;  a  prayer,  read  by  the  minister  and 
repeated  by  the  whole  congregation  kneeling.  Then  the 
prayer  was  burned,  the  minister  read  a  sermon,  an  anthem 
was  chanted  to  the  long  life  of  the  king ;  then  followed 
the  Ten  Commandments,  music,  and  the  burning  of  in¬ 
cense  and  fire-crackers.  No  business  was  allowed  on  the 
Sabbath,  and  the  shops  were  closed.  There  was  a  clergy, 
chosen  by  competitive  examination,  subject  to  the  ap¬ 
proval  of  the  Tien- Wong,  or  supreme  religious  head  of  the 
movement.  There  was  a  minister  placed  over  every 
twenty-five  families,  and  a  church,  or  Heavenly  Hall,  as¬ 
signed  to  him  in  some  public  building.  Over  every  twenty- 
five  parishes  there  was  a  superior,  who  visited  them  in 
turn  every  Sabbath.  Once  every  month  the  whole  people 
were  addressed  by  the  chief  Wong. 

The  writer  of  this  work  describes  his  attendance  on 
morning  prayers  at  Nan-king,  in  the  Heavenly  Hall  of  the 
Chung-Wang’s  household.  This  took  place  at  sunrise 
every  morning,  the  men  and  women  sitting  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  hall.  “  Oftentimes,”  says  he,  “  while  kneel¬ 
ing  in  the  midst  of  an  apparently  devout  congregation, 
and  gazing  on  the  upturned  countenances  lightened  by 
the  early  morning  sun,  have  I  wondered  why  no  British 
missionary  occupied  my  place,  and  why  Europeans  gen¬ 
erally  preferred  slaughtering  the  Ti-Pings  to  accepting 
them  as  brothers  in  Christ.  When  I  look  back,”  he  adds, 
“  on  the  unchangeable  and  universal  kindness  I  always 
met  with  among  the  Ti-Pings,  even  when  their  dearest 
relatives  were  being  slaughtered  by  my  countrymen,  or 
delivered  over  to  the  Manchoos  to  be  tortured  to  death, 
their  magnanimous  forbearance  seems  like  a  dream.  Their 
kind  and  friendly  feelings  were  often  annoying.  To  those 
who  have  experienced  the  ordinary  dislike  of  foreigners 
by  the  Chinese,  the  surprising  friendliness  of  the  Ti-Pings 
was  most  remarkable.  They  welcomed  Europeans  as 
“  brethren  from  across  the  sea,”  and  claimed  them  as  fel¬ 
low-worshippers  of  “  Yesu.” 

Though  the  Ti-Pings  did  not  at  once  lay  aside  all  hea« 


68 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


then  customs,  and  could  not  be  expected  to  do  so,  they 
took  some  remarkable  steps  in  the  right  direction.  Their 
women  were  in  a  much  higher  position  than  among  the 
other  Chinese;  they  abolished  the  custom  of  cramping 
their  feet ;  a  married  woman  had  rights,  and  could  not 
be  divorced  at  will,  or  sold,  as  under  the  Manchoos. 
Large  institutions  were  established  for  unmarried  women. 
Slavery  was  totally  abolished,  and  to  sell  a  human  being 
was  made  a  capital  offence.  They  utterly  prohibited  the 
use  of  opium ;  and  this  was  probably  their  chief  offence 
in  the  eyes  of  the  English.  Prostitution  was  punished 
by  death,  and  was  unknown  in  their  cities.  Idolatry  was 
also  utterly  abolished.  Their  treatment  of  the  people 
under  them  was  merciful ;  they  protected  their  prisoners, 
whom  the  Imperialists  always  massacred.  The  British 
troops,  instead  of  preserving  neutrality,  aided  the  Impe¬ 
rialists  in  putting  down  the  insurrection  in  such  ways  as 
this.  The  British  cruisers  assumed  that  the  Ti-Ping  junks 
were  pirates,  because  they  captured  Chinese  vessels.  The 
British  ship  Bittern  and  another  steamer  sank  every  ves¬ 
sel  but  two  in  a  rebel  fleet,  and  gave  up  the  crew  of  one 
which  they  captured  to  be  put  to  death.  This  is  the  de¬ 
scription  of  another  transaction  of  the  same  kind,  in  the 
harbor  of  Shi-poo  :  “  The  junks  were  destroyed,  and  their 
crews  shot,  drowned,  and  hunted  down,  until  about  a 
thousand  were  killed ;  the  Bittern’s  men  aiding  the  Chi¬ 
nese  on  shore  to  complete  the  wholesale  massacre.”  * 

It  is  the  deliberate  opinion  of  this  well-informed  Eng¬ 
lish  writer  that  the  Ti-Ping  insurrection  would  have  suc¬ 
ceeded  but  for  British  intervention ;  that  the  Tartar  dynas¬ 
ty  would  have  been  expelled,  the  Chinese  regained  their 
autonomy,  and  Christianity  have  been  established  through¬ 
out  the  Empire.  At  the  end  of  his  book  he  gives  a  table 
of  forty-three  battles  and  massacres  in  which  the  British 
soldiers  and  navy  took  part,  in  which  about  four  hundred 
thousand  of  the  Ti-Pings  were  killed,  and  he  estimates 
that  more  than  two  millions  more  died  of  starvation  in 
1863  and  1864,  in  the  famine  occasioned  by  the  opera¬ 
tions  of  the  allied  English,  French,  and  Chinese  troops, 

*  Hong-Kong  Gazette,  October  12,  1855. 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


69 


when  the  Ti-Pings  were  driven  from  their  territories.  Tn 
view  of  such  facts,  well  may  an  English  writer  say :  “  It 
is  not  once  or  twice  that  the  policy  of  the  British  gov¬ 
ernment  has  been  ruinous  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
world.  Disregard  of  international  law  and  of  treaty  law 
in  Europe,  deeds  of  piracy  and  spoliation  in  Asia,  one 
vast  system  of  wrong  and  violence,  have  everywhere  for 
years  marked  the  dealings  of  the  British  government 
with  the  weaker  races  of  the  globe.”  * 

Other  Englishmen,  beside  “  Lin-Le  ”  and  Mr.  Meadows, 
give  the  same  testimony  to  the  Christian  character  of  this 
great  movement  in  China.  Captain  Fishbourne,  describ¬ 
ing  his  visit  in  H.  M.  S.  Hermes  to  Nan-king,  says :  “  It  was 
obvious  to  the  commonest  observer  that  they  were  prac¬ 
tically  a  different  race.”  They  had  the  Scriptures,  many 
seemed  to  him  to  be  practical  Christians,  serious  and 
religious,  believing  in  a  special  Providence,  thinking  that 
their  trials  were  sent  to  purify  them.  “  They  accuse  us 
of  magic,”  said  one.  “  The  only  magic  we  employ  is 
prayer  to  God.”  The  man  who  said  this,  says  Captain 
Fishbourne,  “was  a  little  shrivelled-up  person,  but  he 
uttered  words  of  courageous  confidence  in  God,  and  could 
utter  the  words  of  a  hero.  He  and  others  like  him  have 
impressed  the  minds  of  their  followers  with  their  own 
courage  and  morality” 

The  English  Bishop  of  Victoria  has  constantly  given 
the  same  testimony.  Of  one  of  the  Ti-Ping  books  Dr. 
Medliurst  says  :  “  There  is  not  a  word  in  it  which  a  Chris¬ 
tian  missionary  might  not  adopt  and  circulate  as  a  tract 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Chinese.” 

Dr.  Medliurst  also  describes  a  scene  which  took  place 
in  Shanghae,  where  he  was  preaching  in  the  chapel  of 
the  London  Missionary  Society,  on  the  folly  of  idolatry 
and  the  duty  of  worshipping  the  one  true  God.  A  man 
arose  in  the  middle  of  the  congregation  and  said :  “  That 
is  true  !  that  is  true  !  the  idols  must  perish.  I  am  a  Ti- 
Ping  ;  we  all  worship  one  God  and  believe  in  J esus,  and 
we  everywhere  destroy  the  idols.  Two  years  ago  when 
we  began  we  were  only  three  thousand ;  now  we  have 


*  Intervention  and  Non-Intervention,  by  A.  G.  Stapleton. 


70 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


marched  across  the  Empire,  because  God  was  on  our  side.” 
He  then  exhorted  the  people  to  abandon  idolatry  and  to 
believe  in  Jesus,  and  said :  “We  are  happy 'in  our  religion, 
and  look  on  the  day  of  our  death  as  the  happiest  moment 
of  life.  When  any  of  our  number  dies,  we  do  not  weep, 
but  congratulate  each  other  because  he  has  gone  to  the 
joy  of  the  heavenly  world.” 

The  mission  of  Mr.  Burlingame  indicated  a  sincere  de¬ 
sire  on  the  part  of  the  sagacious  men  who  then  governed 
China,  especially  of  Prince  Rung,  to  enter  into  relations 
with  modern  civilization  and  modern  thought.  Erom  the 
official  papers  of  this  mission,*  it  appears  that  Mr.  Bur¬ 
lingame  was  authorized  “  to  transact  all  business  with  the 
Treaty  Powers  in  which  those  countries  and  China  had  a 
common  interest,”  (communication  of  Prince  Rung,  Decem¬ 
ber  31,  1867).  The  Chinese  government  expressly  states 
that  this  step  is  intended  as  adopting  the  customs  of  diplo¬ 
matic  intercourse  peculiar  to  the  West,  and  that  in  so 
doing  the  Chinese  Empire  means  to  conform  to  the  law  of 
nations,  as  understood  among  the  European  states.  It 
therefore  adopted  “  Wheaton’s  International  Law  ”  as  the 
text-book  and  authority  to  be  used  in  its  Foreign  Office, 
and  had  it  carefully  translated  into  Chinese  for  the  use  of 
its  mandarins.  This  movement  was  the  result,  says  Mr. 
Burlingame,  of  the  “  co-operative  policy  ”  adopted  by 
the  representatives  in  China  of  the  Treaty  Powers,  in 
which  they  agreed  to  act  together  on  all  important  ques¬ 
tions,  to  take  no  cession  of  territory,  and  never  to  menace 
the  autonomy  of  the  Empire.  They  agreed  “  to  leave  her 
perfectly  free  to  develop  herself  according  to  her  own  form 
of  civilization,  not  to  interfere  with  her  interior  affairs,  to 
make  her  waters  neutral,  and  her  land  safe  ”  (Burlingame’s 
speech  at  San  Francisco).  There  is  no  doubt  that  if 
the  states  known  as  the  “  Treaty  Powers,”  namely,  the 
United  States,  Belgium,  Denmark,  France,  Great  Britain, 
Holland,  Italy,  North  Germany,  Russia,  Spain,  and  Swe¬ 
den,  will  loyally  abstain  from  aggression  and  interference 
in  China  and  respect  her  independence,  that  this  great 

*  Official  Papers  of  the  Chinese  Legation.  Berlin  :  T.  Calvary  &  Co., 
Oberwasser  Square.  1870. 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE.  71 

Empire  will  step  forth  from  her  seclusion  of  fifty  centuries, 
and  enter  the  commonwealth  of  nations. 

The  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  China  of 
July  28, 1868,  includes  provisions  for  the  neutrality  of  the 
Chinese  waters  ;  for  freedom  of  worship  for  United  States 
citizens  in  China,  and  for  the  Chinese  in  the  United  States ; 
for  allowing  voluntary  emigration,  and  prohibiting  the 
compulsory  coolie  trade ;  for  freedom  to  travel  in  China 
and  the  United  States  by  the  citizens  of  either  country ; 
and  for  freedom  to  establish  and  attend  schools  in  both 
countries. 

We  add  to  this  chapter  a  Note,  containing  an  interest¬ 
ing  account,  from  Hue’s  “  Christianity  in  China,”  of  an  in¬ 
scribed  stone,  proving  that  Christian  churches  existed  in 
China  in  the  seventh  century.  These  churches  were  the 
result  of  the  efforts  of  Nestorian  missionaries,  who  were 
the  Protestant  Christians  of  their  age.  Their  success  in 
China  is  another  proof  that  the  Christianity  which  is  to 
be  welcomed  there  must  be  presented  in  an  intelligible 
and  rational  form. 


NOTE. 

THE  NESTORIAN  INSCRIPTION  IN  CHINA.* 

In  1625  some  Chinese  workmen,  engaged  in  digging  a  founda¬ 
tion  for  a  house,  outside  the  walls  of  the  city  of  Si-ngau-Fou,  the 
capital  of  the  province  of  Chen-si,  found  buried  in  the  earth  a 
large  monumental  stone  resembling  those  which  the  Chinese  are  in 
the  habit  of  raising  to  preserve  to  posterity  the  remembrance  of 
remarkable  events  and  illustrious  men.  It  was  a  dark-colored  marble 
tablet,  ten  feet  high  and  five  broad,  and  bearing  on  one  side  an 
inscription  in  ancient  Chinese,  and  also  some  other  characters  quite 
unknown  in  China. 

•  •  •  •  • 

Several  exact  tracings  from  the  stone  were  sent  to  Europe  by  the 
Jesuits  who  saw  it.  The  library  of  their  house  at  Rome  had  one  of 
the  first,  and  it  attracted  numerous  visitors ;  subsequently,  another 
authentic  copy  of  the  dimensions  of  the  tablet  was  sent  to  Paris, 
and  deposited  at  the  library  in  the  Rue  Richelieu,  where  it  may  still 
be  seen  in  the  gallery  of  manuscripts. 

*  From  Hue’s  “  Christianity  in  China.” 


72 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


This  monument,  discovered  by  chance  amidst  rubbish  in  the 
environs  of  an  ancient  capital  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  excited  a 
great  sensation;  for  on  examining  the  stone,  and  endeavoring  to 
interpret  the  inscription,  it  was  with  surprise  discovered  that  the 
Christian  religion  had  had  numerous  apostles  in  China  at  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  the  seventh  century,  and  that  it  had  for  a  long  time 
flourished  there.  The  strange  characters  proved  to  be  those  called 
estrangelhos,  which  were  in  use  among  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
Syria,  and  will  be  found  in  some  Syriac  manuscripts  of  earlier  date 
than  the  eighth  century. 

Monument  of  the  great  Propagation  of  the  Luminous  Doctrine  in  the 

Central  Empire ,  composed  by  Khing-Tsing,  a  devout  Man  of  the 

Temple  of  Ta-Thsin. 

1.  There  has  always  been  only  one  true  Cause,  essentially  the 
first,  and  without  beginning,  supremely  intelligent  and  immaterial; 
essentially  the  last,  and  uniting  all  perfections.  He  placed  the  poles 
of  the  heavens  and  created  all  beings ;  marvellously  holy,  he  is  the 
source  of  all  perfection.  This  admirable  being,  is  he  not  the  Triune , 
the  true  Lord  without  beginning,  Ololio  ? 

He  divided  the  world  by  a  cross  into  four  parts.  After  having 
decomposed  the  primordial  air,  he  gave  birth  to  the  two  elements. 

Chaos  was  transformed,  and  then  the  sun  and  the  moon  appeared. 
He  made  the  sun  and  the  moon  move  to  produce  day  and  night. 
He  elaborated  and  perfected  the  ten  thousand  things ;  but  in  creat¬ 
ing  the  first  man,  he  endowed  him  with  perfect  interior  harmony. 
He  enjoined  him  to  watch  over  the  sea  of  his  desires.  His  nature 
was  without  vice  and  without  error ;  his  heart,  pure  and  simple,  was 
originally  without  disorderly  appetites. 

2.  But  Sa-Thang  propagated  lies,  and  stained  by  his  malice  that 
which  had  been  pure  and  holy.  He  proclaimed,  as  a  truth,  the 
equality  of  greatness,  and  upset  all  ideas.  This  is  why  three  hun¬ 
dred  and  sixty-five  sects,  lending  each  other  a  mutual  support, 
formed  a  long  chain,  and  wove,  so  to  speak,  a  net  of  law.  Some 
put  the  creature  in  the  place  of  the  Eternal,  others  denied  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  beings,  and  destroyed  the  two  principles.  Others  instituted 
prayers  and  sacrifices  to  obtain  good  fortune ;  others  proclaimed 
their  own  sanctity  to  deceive  mankind.  The  minds  of  men  labored, 
and  were  filled  with  anxiety ;  aspirations  after  the  supreme  good 
were  trampled  down ;  thus  perpetually  floating  about  they  attained 
to  nothing,  and  all  went  from  bad  to  worse.  The  darkness  thick¬ 
ened,  men  lost  their  sight,  and  for  a  long  time  they  wandered  without 
being  able  to  find  it  again. 

3.  Then  our  Triune  Glod  communicated  his  substance  to  the  very 
venerable  Mi-chi-ho  (Messiah),  who,  veiling  his  true  majesty,  ap¬ 
peared  in  the  world  in  the  likeness  of  a  man.  The  celestial  spirits 
manifested  their  joy,  and  a  virgin  brought  forth  the  saint  in  Ta- 
Thsin.  The  most  splendid  constellations  announced  this  happy 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


73 


event ;  the  Persians  saw  the  splendor,  and  ran  to  pay  tribute.  He 
fulfilled  what  was  said  of  old  by  the  twenty-four  saints ;  he  organ¬ 
ized,  by  his  precepts,  both  families  and  kingdoms ;  he  instituted  the 
new  religion  according  to  the  true  notion  of  the  Trinity  in  Unity ; 
he  regulated  conscience  by  the  true  faith ;  he  signified  to  the  world 
the  eight  commandments,  and  purged  humanity  from  its  pollutions 
by  opening  the  door  to  the  three  virtues.  He  diffused  life  and  ex¬ 
tinguished  death  ;  he  suspended  the  luminous  sun  to  destroy  the 
dwelling  of  darkness,  and  then  the  lies  of  demons  passed  away. 
He  directed  the  bark  of  mercy  towards  the  palace  of  light,  and  all 
creatures  endowed  with  intelligence  have  been  succored.  After 
having  consummated  this  act  of  power,  he  rose  at  midday  towards 
the  Truth.  Twenty-seven  books  have  been  left.  He  has  enlarged 
the  springs  of  mercy,  that  men  might  be  converted.  The  baptism 
by  water  and  by  the  Spirit  is  a  law  that  purifies  the  soul  and 
beautifies  the  exterior.  The  sign  of  the  cross  unites  the  four 
quarters  of  the  world,  and  restores  the  harmony  that  had  been 
destroyed.  By  striking  upon  a  piece  of  wood,  we  make  the  voice 
of  charity  and  mercy  resound ;  by  sacrificing  towards  the  east  we 
indicate  the  way  of  life  and  glory. 

Our  ministers  allow  their  beards  to  grow,  to  show  that  they  are 
devoted  to  their  neighbors.  The  tonsure  that  they  wear  at  the  top 
of  their  heads  indicates  that  they  have  renounced  worldly  desires. 
In  giving  liberty  to  slaves  we  become  a  link  between  the  powerful 
and  weak.  We  do  not  accumulate  riches,  and  we  share  with  the 
poor  that  which  we  possess.  Fasting  strengthens  the  intellectual 
powers,  abstinence  and  moderation  preserve  health.  We  worship 
seven  times  a  day,  and  by  our  prayers  we  aid  the  living  and  the 
dead.  On  the  seventh  day  we  offer  sacrifice,  after  having  purified 
our  hearts  and  received  absolution  for  our  sins.  This  religion,  so 
perfect  and  so  excellent,  is  difficult  to  name,  but  it  enlightens  dark¬ 
ness  by  its  brilliant  precepts.  It  is  called  the  Luminous  Religion. 

5.  Learning  alone  without  sanctity  has  no  grandeur,  sanctity  with¬ 
out  learning  makes  no  progress.  When  learning  and  sanctity  pro¬ 
ceed  harmoniously,  the  universe  is  adorned  and  resplendent. 

The  Emperor  Tai-Tsoung  illustrated  the  Empire.  He  opened  the 
revolution,  and  governed  men  in  holiness.  In  his  time  there  was  a 
man  of  high  virtue  named  Olopen,  who  came  from  the  kingdom  of 
Ta-Thsin.  Directed  by  the  blue  clouds,  he  bore  the  Scriptures  of 
the  true  doctrine;  he  observed  the  rules  of  the  winds,  and  trav¬ 
ersed  difficult  and  perilous  countries 

In  the  ninth  year  of  Tching-Kouan  (636)  he  arrived  at  Tchang- 
ngan.  The  Emperor  ordered  Fang-hi-wen-Ling,  first  minister  of 
the  Empire,  to  go  with  a  great  train  of  attendants  to  the  western 
suburb,  to  meet  the  stranger  and  bring  him  to  the  palace.  He  had 
the  Holy  Scriptures  translated  in  the  Imperial  library.  The  court 
listened  to  the  doctrine,  meditated  on  it  profoundly,  and  understood 
the  great  unity  of  truth.  A  special  edict  was  promulgated  for  its 
publication  and  diffusion. 

3 


74 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


In  the  twelfth  year  of  Tching-Kouan,  in  the  seventh  moon,  during 
the  autumn,  the  new  edict  was  promulgated  in  these  terms :  — 

The  doctrine  has  no  fixed  name,  the  holy  has  no  determinate 
substance ;  it  institutes  religions  suitable  to  various  countries,  and 
carries  men  in  crowds  in  its  tracks.  Olopen,  a  man  of  Ta-Thsin, 
and  of  a  lofty  virtue,  bearing  Scriptures  and  images,  has  come  to 
offer  them  in  the  Supreme  Court.  After  a  minute  examination  of 
the  spirit  of  this  religion,  it  has  been  found  to  be  excellent,  mysteri¬ 
ous,  and  pacific.  The  contemplation  of  its  radical  principle  gives 
birth  to  perfection  and  fixes  the  will.  It  is  exempt  from  verbosity ; 
it  considers  only  good  results.  It  is  useful  to  men,  and  conse¬ 
quently  ought  to  be  published  under  the  whole  extent  of  the 
heavens.  I,  therefore,  command  the  magistrates  to  have  a  Ta- 
Thsin  temple  constructed  in  the  quarter  named  T-ning  of  the 
Imperial  city,  and  twenty-one  religious  men  shall  be  installed 
therein. 

*  •  •  •  • 

10.  Sou-Tsoung,  the  illustrious  and  brilliant  emperor,  erected  at 
Ling-ou  and  other  towns,  five  in  all,  luminous  temples.  The  primi¬ 
tive  good  was  thus  strengthened,  and  felicity  flourished.  Joyous 
solemnities  were  inaugurated,  and  the  Empire  entered  on  a  wide 
course  of  prosperity. 

11.  Tai-Tsoung  (764),  a  lettered  and  a  warlike  emperor,  propa¬ 

gated  the  holy  revolution.  He  sought  for  peace  and  tranquillity. 
Every  year,  at  the  hour  of  the  Nativity  (Christmas),  he  burnt 
celestial  perfumes  in  remembrance  of  the  divine  benefit;  he  pre¬ 
pared  imperial  feasts,  to  honor  the  luminous  (Christian)  multitude. 

•  •  •  •  • 

21.  This  stone  was  raised  in  the  second  year  of  Kien-Tchoung 

of  the  great  dynasty  of  Thang  (a.  d.  781),  on  the  seventh  day  of 
the  moon  of  the  great  increase.  At  this  time  the  devout  Ning- 
Chou,  lord  of  the  doctrine,  governed  the  luminous  multitude  in  the 
Eastern  country. 

Such  is  the  translation  of  the  famous  inscription  found  at  Si-ngau- 
Fou,  in  1625.  On  the  left  of  the  monument  are  to  be  read  the 
following  words  in  the  Syriac  language  :  u  In  the  days  of  the  Father 
of  Fathers,  Anan-Yeschouah,  Patriarch  Catholicos .”  To  the  right 
can  be  traced,  u  Adam,  Priest,  and  Chor-Episcopus  ”  ;  and  at  the 
base  of  the  inscription :  “  In  the  year  of  the  Greeks  one  thousand 
nine  hundred  and  two  (a.  d.  781),  Mar  Yezd-bouzid,  Priest  and 
Chor-Episcopus  of  the  Imperial  city  of  Komdam,  son  of  Millesins, 
priest  of  happy  memory,  of  Balkh,  a  town  of  Tokharistan  (Turkis- 
tan),  raised  this  tablet  of  stone,  on  winch  are  described  the  benefits 
of  our  Saviour,  and  the  preaching  of  our  fathers  in  the  kingdom 
of  the  Chinese.  Adam,  Deacon,  son  of  Yezd-bouzid,  Chor-Episco¬ 
pus ;  Sabar-Jesu,  Priest;  Gabriel,  Priest,  Archdeacon,  and  Ecclesi- 
arch  of  Komdam  and  Sarage.” 


CONFUCIUS  AND  THE  CHINESE. 


75 


The  abridgment  of  Christian  doctrine  given  in  the  Syro-Chinese 
inscription  of  Si-ngau-Fou  shows  us,  also,  that  the  propagators 
of  the  faith  in  Upper  Asia  in  the  seventh  century  professed  the 
Nestorian  errors. 

Through  the  vague  and  obscure  verbiage  which  characterizes  the 
Chinese  style,  we  recognize  the  mode  in  which  that  heresiarch 
admitted  the  union  of  the  Word  with  man,  by  indwelling  plenitude 
of  grace  superior  to  that  of  all  the  saints.  One  of  the  persons  of  the 
Trinity  communicated  himself  to  the  very  illustrious  and  venerable 
Messiah,  “  veiling  his  majesty.”  That  is  certainly  the  doctrine  of 
Nestorius ;  upon  that  point  the  authority  of  the  critics  is  unanimous. 

History,  as  we  have  elsewhere  remarked,  records  the  rapid  pro¬ 
gress  of  the  Nestor  ian  sects  in  the  interior  of  Asia,  and  their  being 
able  to  hold  their  ground,  even  under  the  sway  of  the  Mussulmans, 
by  means  of  compromises  and  concessions  of  every  kind. 

Setting  out  from  the  banks  of  the  Tigris  or  the  Euphrates,  these 
ardent  and  courageous  propagators  of  the  G-ospel  probably  proceeded 
to  Khorassan,  and  then  crossing  the  Oxus,  directed  their  course 
toward  the  Lake  of  Lop,  and  entered  the  Chinese  Empire  by  the 
province  of  Chen-si.  Olopen,  and  his  successors  in  the  Christian 
mission,  whether  Syrians  or  Persians  by  birth,  certainly  belonged  to 
the  Nestorian  church. 

V oltaire,  who  did  not  like  to  trouble  himself  with  scientific  argu¬ 
ments,  and  who  was  much  stronger  in  sarcasm  than  in  erudition, 
roundly  accuses  the  missionaries  of  having  fabricated  the  inscription 
on  the  monument  of  Si-ngau-Fou,  from  motives  of  “  pious  fraud.” 

“  As  if,”  says  Remusat,  “  such  a  fabrication  could  have  been  prac¬ 
ticable  in  the  midst  of  a  distrustful  and  suspicious  nation,  in  a 
country  in  which  magistrates  and  private  people  are  equally  ill- 
disposed  towards  foreigners,  and  especially  missionaries,  where  all 
eyes  are  open  to  their  most  trivial  proceedings,  and  where  the 
authorities  watch  with  the  most  jealous  care  over  everything  re¬ 
lating  to  the  historical  traditions  and  monuments  of  antiquity.  It 
would  be  very  difficult  to  explain  how  the  missionaries  could  have 
been  bold  enough  to  have  printed  and  published  in  China,  and  in 
Chinese,  an  inscription  that  had  never  existed,  and  how  they  could 
have  imitated  the  Chinese  style,  counterfeited  the  manner  of  the 
writers  of  the  dynasty  of  Thang,  alluded  to  customs  little  known,  to 
local  circumstances,  to  dates  calculated  from  the  mysterious  figures 
of  Chinese  astrology,  and  the  whole  without  betraying  themselves 
for  a  moment ;  and  with  such  perfection  as  to  impose  on  the  most 
skilful  men  of  letters,  induced,  of  course,  by  the  singularity  of  the 
discovery  to  dispute  its  authenticity.  It  could  only  have  been  done 
by  one  of  the  most  erudite  of  Chinese  scholars,  joining  with  the 
missionaries  to  impose  on  his  own  countrymen.” 

“  Even  that  would  not  be  all,  for  the  borders  of  the  inscription  are 
covered  with  Syrian  names  in  fine  estranghelo  characters.  The  . 
forgers  must,  then,  have  been  not  only  acquainted  with  these  char¬ 
acters,  but  have  been  able  to  get  engraved  with  perfect  exactness 


76 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


ninety  lines  of  them,  and  in  the  ancient  writing,  known  at  present 
to  very  few.” 

“  This  argument  of  Remusat’s,”  says  another  learned  Orientalist, 
M.  Felix  Neve,  “  is  of  irresistible  force,  and  we  have  formerly 
heard  a  similar  one  maintained  with  the  greatest  confidence  by  M. 
Quatremere,  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions  and  Belles-Lettres,  and 
we  allow  ourselves  to  quote  the  opinion  of  so  highly  qualified  a 
judge  upon  this  point.  Before  the  last  century  it  would  have  been 
absolutely  impossible  to  forge  in  Europe  a  series  of  names  and  titles 
belonging  to  a  Christian  nation  of  Western  Asia;  it  is  only  since 
the  fruits  of  Assemani’s  labors  have  been  made  public  by  his 
family  at  Rome,  that  there  existed  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the 
Syriac  for  such  a  purpose ;  and  it  is  only  by  the  publication  of  the 
manuscripts  of  the  Vatican,  that  the  extent  to  which  Nestorianism 
spread  in  the  centre  of  Asia,  and  the  influence  of  its  hierarchy  in  the 
Persian  provinces  could  have  been  estimated.  There  is  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  missionaries  who  left  Europe  in  the  very  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  century  could  have  acquired  a  knowledge  which 
could  only  be  obtained  from  reading  the  originals  and  not  vague 
accounts  of  them.” 

The  sagacity  of  M.  Saint  Martin,  who  was  for  a  long  time  the 
colleague  of  M.  Quatremere,  has  pointed  out  in  a  note  worthy  of 
his  erudition,  another  special  proof,  which  is  by  no  means  to  be 
neglected. 

“  Amongst  the  various  arguments,”  he  says,  “  that  might  be  urged 
in  favor  of  the  legitimacy  of  the  monument,  but  of  which,  as  yet,  no 
use  has  been  made,  must  not  be  forgotten  the  name  of  the  priest 
by  whom  it  is  said  to  have  been  erected.  The  name  Yezdbouzid 
is  Persian,  and  at  the  epoch  when  the  monument  was  discovered 
it  would  have  been  impossible  to  invent  it,  as  there  existed  no 
work  where  it  could  have  been  found.  Indeed,  I  do  not  think  that, 
even  since  then,  there  has  ever  been  any  one  published  in  which  it 
could  have  been  met  with. 

“'It  is  a  very  celebrated  name  among  the  Armenians,  and  comes 
to  them  from  a  martyr,  a  Persian  by  birth,  and  of  the  royal  race, 
who  perished  towards  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  and 
rendered  his  name  illustrious  amongst  the  Christian  nations  of  the 
East.”  Saint  Martin  adds  in  the  same  place,  that  the  famous  monu¬ 
ment  of  Si-ngau-Fou,  whose  authenticity  has  for  a  long  time  been 
called  in  question  from  the  hatred  entertained  against  the  Jesuit 
missionaries  who  discovered  it,  rather  than  from  a  candid  examina¬ 
tion  of  its  contents,  is  now  regarded  as  above  all  suspicion. 


BRAHMANISM. 


77 


CHAPTER  III. 

BRAHMANISM. 


§  1.  Our  Knowledge  of  Brahmanism.  Sir  William  Jones.  §  2.  Diffi¬ 
culty  of  this  Study.  The  Complexity  of  the  System.  The  Hindoos  have 
no  History.  Their  Ultra-Spiritualism.  §  3.  Helps  from  Comparative 
Philology.  The  Aryans  in  Central  Asia.  §  4.  The  Aryans  in  India. 
The  Native  Races.  The  Vedic  Age.  Theology  of  the  Vedas.  §5.  Sec¬ 
ond  Period.  Laws  of  Manu.  The  Brahmanic  Age.  §  6.  The  Three 
Hindoo  Systems  of  Philosophy,  — the  Sankhya,  Vedanta,  and  Nyasa. 
§  7.  Origin  of  the  Hindoo  Triad.  §  8.  The  Epics,  the  Puranas,  and 
Modern  Hindoo  Worship.  §  9.  Relation  of  Brahmanism  to  Chris¬ 
tianity. 


§  1.  Our  Knowledge  of  Brahmanism.  Sir  William  Jones. 

IT  is  more  than  forty  years  since  the  writer,  then  a  boy, 
was  one  day  searching  among  the  heavy  works  of  a 
learned  library  in  the  country  to  find  some  entertaining 
reading  for  a  summer  afternoon.  It  was  a  library  rich 
in  theology,  in  Greek  and  Latin  classics,  in  French  and 
Spanish  literature,  but  contained  little  to  amuse  a  child. 
Led  by  some  happy  fortune,  . in  turning  over  a  pile  of  the 
“  Monthly  Anthology  ”  his  eye  was  attracted  by  the  title 
of  a  play,  “  Sacontala*  or  the  Fatal  Ring ;  an  Indian 
Drama,  translated  from  the  original  Sanskrit  and  Pracrit. 
Calcutta,  1789,”  and  reprinted  in  the  Anthology  in  suc¬ 
cessive  numbers.  Gathering  them  together,  the  boy  took 
them  into  a  great  chestnut-tree,  amid  the  limbs  of  which 
he  had  constructed  a  study,  and  there,  in  the  warm,  fragrant 
shade,  read  hour  after  hour  this  bewitching  story.  The 
tale  was  suited  to  the  day  and  the  scene,  —  filled  with 
images  of  tender  girls  and  religious  sages,  who  lived  amid 
a  tropical  abundance  of  flowers  and  fruits ;  so  blending  the 
beauty  of  nature  with  the  charm  of  love.  Nature  becomes 
in  it  alive,  and  is  interpenetrated  with  human  sentiments.  . 


*  Now  usually  written  Sakoontala  or  Sakuntala. 


78 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Sakuntala  loves  tlie  flowers  as  sisters;  the  Kesara-tree 
beckons  to  her  with  its  waving  blossoms,  and  clings  to 
her  in  affection  as  she  bends  over  it.  The  jasmine,  the 
wife  of  the  mango-tree,  embraces  her  lord,  who  leans  down 
to  protect  his  blooming  bride,  “the  moonlight  of  the 
grove.”  The  holy  hermits  defend  the  timid  fawn  from 
the  hunters,  and  the  birds,  grown  tame  in  their  peaceful 
solitudes,  look  tranquilly  on  the  intruder.  The  demons 
occasionally  disturb  the  sacrificial  rites,  but,  like  well- 
educated  demons,  retire  at  once,  as  soon  as  the  protecting 
Raja  enters  the  sacred  grove.  All  breathes  of  love,  gentle 
and  generous  sentiment,  and  quiet  joys  in  the  bosom  of 
a  luxuriant  and  beautiful  summer  land.  Thus,  in  this 
poem,  written  a  hundred  years  before  Christ,  we  find  that 
romantic  view  of  nature,  unknown  to  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,  and  first  appearing  in  our  own  time  in  such 
writers  as  Rousseau,  Goethe,  and  Byron. 

He  wTho  translated  this  poem  into  a  European  language, 
and  communicated  it  to  modern  readers,  was  Sir  William 
Jones,  one  of  the  few  first-class  scholars  whom  the  world 
has  produced.  In  him  was  joined  a  marvellous  gift  of 
language  with  a  love  for  truth  and  beauty,  which  detected 
by  an  infallible  instinct  what  was  worth  knowing,  in  the 
mighty  maze  of  Oriental  literature.  He  had  also  the  rare 
good  fortune  of  being  the  first  to  discover  this  domain  of 
literature  in  Asia,  unknown  to  the  West  till  lie  came  to 
reveal  it.  The  vast  realm  of  Hindoo,  Chinese,  and  Per¬ 
sian  genius  was  as  much  a  new  continent  to  Europe, 
when  discovered  by  Sir  William  Jones,  as  America  was 
when  made  known  by  Columbus.  Its  riches  had  been 
accumulating  during  thousands  of  years,  waiting  till  the 
fortunate  man  should  arrive,  destined  to  reveal  to  our  age 
the  barbaric  pearl  and  gold  of  the  gorgeous  East,  —  the 
true  wealth  of  Ormus  and  of  Ind. 

Sir  William  Jones  came  well  equipped  for  his  task. 
Some  men  are  born  philologians,  loving  words  for  their 
own  sake,  —  men  to  whom  the  devious  paths  of  language 
*  are  open  highways ;  who,  as  Lord  Bacon  says,  “  have  come 
forth  from  the  second  general  curse,  which  was  the  con¬ 
fusion  of  tongues,  by  the  art  of  grammar.”  Sir  William 


BRAHMANISM. 


79 


Jones  was  one  of  these,  perhaps  the  greatest  of  them.  A 
paper  in  his  own  handwriting  tells  ns  that  he  knew  criti¬ 
cally  eight  languages,  —  English,  Latin,  French,  Italian, 
Greek,  Arabic,  Persian,  and  Sanskrit ;  less  perfectly  eight 
others,  —  Spanish,  Portuguese,  German,  Eunic,  Hebrew, 
Bengali,  Hindi,  Turkish;  and  was  moderately  familiar 
with  twelve  more,  —  Tibetian,  Pali,  Phalavi,  Deri,  Eussian, 
Syriac,  Ethiopic,  Coptic,  Welsh,  Swedish,  Dutch,  and  Chi¬ 
nese.  There  have  been,  perhaps,  other  scholars  who  have 
known  as  many  tongues  as  this.  But  usually  they  are 
crushed  by  their  own  accumulations,  and  we  never  hear  of 
their  accomplishing  anything.  Sir  William  Jones  was 
not  one  of  these,  “  deep  versed  in  books,  and  shallow  in 
himself.”  Language  was  his  instrument,  but  knowledge 
his  aim.  So,  when  he  had  mastered  Sanskrit  and  other 
Oriental  languages,  he  rendered  into  English  not  only 
Sakuntala,  but  a  far  more  important  work,  “  The  Laws  of 
Manu  ”  ;  “  almost  the  only  work  in  Sanskrit,”  says  Max 
Muller,  “  the  early  date  of  which,  assigned  to  it  by  Sir 
William  Jones  from  the  first,  has  not  been  assailed.”  He 
also  translated  from  the  Sanskrit  the  fables  of  Hitopadesa, 
extracts  from  the  Vedas,  and  shorter  pieces.  He  formed 
a  society  in  Calcutta  for  the  study  of  Oriental  literature, 
was  its  first  president,  and  contributed  numerous  essays, 
all  valuable,  to  its  periodical,  the  “  Asiatic  Besearclies .” 
He  wrote  a  grammar  of  the  Persian  language,  and  trans¬ 
lated  from  Persian  into  French  the  history  of  Nadir  Shah. 
From  the  Arabic  he  also  translated  many  pieces,  and 
among  them  the  Seven  Poems  suspended  in  the  temple  at 
Mecca,  which,  in  their  subjects  and  style,  seem  an  Arabic 
anticipation  of  Walt  Whitman.  He  wrote  in  Latin  a 
Book  of  Commentaries  on  Asiatic  Poetry,  in  English 
several  works  on  the  Mohammedan  and  Civil  Law,  with  a 
translation  of  the  Greek  Orations  of  Isseus.  As  a  lawyer, 
a  judge,  a  student  of  natural  history,  his  ardor  of  study 
was  equally  apparent.  He  presented  to  the  Boyal  Society 
in  London  a  large  collection  of  valuable  Oriental  manu¬ 
scripts,  and  left  a  long  list  of  studies  in  Sanskrit  to  be 
pursued  by  those  who  should  come  after  him.  Plis  gen¬ 
erous  nature  showed  itself  in  his  opposition  to  slavery  and 


80 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


the  slave-trade,  and  his  open  sympathy  with  the  American 
Revolution.  His  correspondence  was  large,  including  such 
names  as  those  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  Sir  Joseph  Banks, 
Lord  Monboddo,  Gibbon,  Warren  Hastings,  Dr.  Price,  Ed¬ 
mund  Burke,  and  Dr.  Parr.  Such  a  man  ought  to  be 
remembered,  especially  by  all  who  take  an  interest  in  the 
studies  to  which  he  has  opened  the  way,  for  he  was  one 
who  had  a  right  to  speak  of  himself,  as  he  has  spoken  in 
these  lines :  — 

“  Before  thy  mystic  altar,  heavenly  truth, 

I  kneel  in  manhood,  as  I  knelt  in  youth. 

Thus  let  me  kneel,  till  this  dull  form  decay, 

And  life’s  last  shade  he  brightened  by  thy  ray, 

Then  shall  my  soul,  now  lost  in  clouds  below, 

Soar  without  bound,  without  consuming  glow.” 

Since  the  days  of  Sir  William  Jones  immense  progress 
has  been  made  in  the  study  of  Sanskrit  literature,  espe¬ 
cially  within  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years,  from  the  time 
when  the  Schlegels  led  the  way  in  this  department.  Now, 
professors  of  Sanskrit  are  to  be  found  in  all  the  great 
European  universities,  and  in  tnis  country  we  have  at 
least  one  Sanskrit  scholar  of  the  very  highest  order,  Pro¬ 
fessor  William  D.  Whitney,  of  Yale.  The  system  of 
Brahmanism,  which  a  short  time  since  could  only  be 
known  to  Western  readers  by  means  of  the  writings  of 
Colebrooke,  Wilkins,  Wilson,  and  a  few  others,  has  now 
been  made  accessible  by  the  works  of  Lassen,  Max  Muller, 
Burnouf,  Muir,  Pictet,  Bopp,  Weber,  Windischmann, 
Vivien  de  Saint-Martin,  and  a  multitude  of  eminent 
writers  in  France,  England,  and  Germany.* 

*  To  avoid  multiplying  footnotes,  we  refer  here  to  the  chief  sources 
on  which  we  rely  in  this  chapter.  C.  Lassen ,  Indische  Altherthums- 
kunde  ;  Max  Muller,  History  of  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature  (and  other 
works)  ;  J.  Muir,  Sanskrit  Texts  ;  Pictet,  Les  Origines  Indo-Europeennes  ; 
Sir  William  Jones,  Works,  13  vols.  ;  Viviev  de  Saint-Martin,  Etude, 
&c.,  and  articles  in  the  Revue  Germanique  ;  Monier  Williams,  Sakoon- 
tala  (a  new  translation),  the  Ramayana,  and  the  Maha  Bharata  ;  Horace 
Hayman  Wilson,  Works  (containing  the  Vischnu  Purana,  &c.)  ;  Bur¬ 
nouf,  Essai  sur  la  Veda,  Le  Bhagavata  Purana  ;  Stephenson,  the  Sanhita 
of  the  Sama  Veda  ;  Ampere,  La  Science  en  Orient  ;  Bunsen ,  Gott  in  der 
Geschichte  ;  Shea  and  Troyer,  The  Dabistan  ;  Hardwick,  Christ  and 
other  Masters  ;  J.  Talboys  Wheeler,  History  of  India  from  the  Earliest 
Times  ;  Works  published  by  the  Oriental  Translation  Fund  ;  Max  Dunck- 
er.  Die  Geschichte  der  Arier ;  Rammohun  Roy,  The  Veds  ;  Mullens , 
Hindoo  Philosophy. 


BRAHMANISM. 


81 


§  2.  Difficulty  <>f  this  Study.  The  Complexity  of  the 

System.  The  Hindoos  have  no  History.  Their  Ultra- 

Spiritualism. 

But,  notwithstanding  these  many  helps,  Brahmanism 
remains  a  difficult  study.  Its  source  is  not  in  a  man,  hut 
in  a  caste.  It  is  not  the  religion  of  a  Confucius,  a  Zoroas¬ 
ter,  a  Mohammed,  but  the  religion  of  the  Brahmans.  We 
call  it  Brahmanism,  and  it  can  be  traced  to  no  individual 
as  its  founder  or  restorer.  There  is  no  personality  about 
it.*  It  is  a  vast  world  of  ideas,  but  wanting  the  unity 
which  is  given  by  the  life  of  a  man,  its  embodiment  and 
representative. 

But  what  a  system  ?  How  large,  how  difficult  to  under¬ 
stand  !  So  vast,  so  complicated,  so  full  of  contradictions, 
so  various  and  changeable,  that  its  very  immensity  is  our 
refuge  !  We  say,  It  is  impossible  to  do  justice  to  such  a 
system  ;  therefore  do  not  demand  it  of  us. 

India  has  been  a  land  of  mystery  from  the  earliest 
times.  From  the  most  ancient  days  we  hear  of  India  as 
the  most  populous  nation  of  the  world,  full  of  barbaric 
wealth  and  a  strange  wisdom.  It  has  attracted  conquer¬ 
ors,  and  has  been  overrun  by  the  armies  of  Semiramis, 
Darius,  Alexander;  by  Mahmud,  and  Tamerlane,  and 
Nadir  Shah ;  by  Lord  Clive  and  the  Duke  of  Wel¬ 
lington.  These  conquerors,  from  the  Assyrian  Queen 
to  the  British  Mercantile  Company,  have  overrun  and 
plundered  India,  but  have  left  it  the  same  unintelligible, 
unchangeable,  and  marvellous  country  as  before.  It  is  the 
same  land  now  which  the  soldiers  of  Alexander  described, 
—  the  land  of  grotto  temples  dug  out  of  solid  porphyry  ; 
of  one  of  the  most  ancient  Pagan  religions  of  the  world ; 
of  social  distinctions  fixed  and  permanent  as  the  earth 
itself ;  of  the  sacred  Ganges  ;  of  the  idols  of  J uggernaut, 
with  its  bloody  worship ;  the  land  of  elephants  and 
tigers  ;  of  fields  of  rice  and  groves  of  palm  ;  of  treasuries 
filled  with  chests  of  gold,  heaps  of  pearls,  diamonds,  and 
incense.  But,  above  all,  it  is  the  land  of  unintelligible 

*  “  The  soul  knows  no  persons.”  —  Emerson. 

4*  f 


82 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


systems  of  belief,  of  puzzling  incongruities,  and  irrecon¬ 
cilable  contradictions. 

The  Hindoos  have  sacred  books  of  great  antiquity,  and 
a  rich  literature  extending  back  twenty  or  thirty  cen¬ 
turies  ;  yet  no  history,  no  chronology,  no  annals.  They 
have  a  philosophy  as  acute,  profound  and,  spiritual  as  any 
in  the  world,  which  is  yet  harmoniously  associated  with 
the  coarsest  superstitions.  With  a  belief  so  abstract  that  it 
almost  escapes  the  grasp  of  the  most  speculative  intellect, 
is  joined  the  notion  that  sin  can  be  atoned  for  by  bathing 
in  the  Ganges  or  repeating  a  text  of  the  Yeda.  With  an 
ideal  pantheism  resembling  that  of  Hegel,  is  united  the 
opinion  that  Brahma  and  Siva  can  be  driven  from  the 
throne  of  the  universe  by  any  one  who  will  sacrifice  a  suf¬ 
ficient  number  of  wild  horses.  To  abstract  one’s  self  from 
matter,  to  renounce  all  the  gratification  of  the  senses,  to 
macerate  the  body,  is  thought  the  true  road  to  felicity ;  and 
nowhere  in  the  world  are  luxury,  licentiousness  and  the 
gratification  of  the  appetites  carried  so  far.  Every  civil 
right  and  privilege  of  ruler  and  subject  is  fixed  in  a  code 
of  laws,  and  a  body  of  jurisprudence  older  far  than  the 
Christian  era,  and  the  object  of  universal  reverence ;  but 
the  application  of  these  laws  rests  (says  Bliode)  on  the 
arbitrary  decisions  of  the  priests,  and  their  execution  on 
the  will  of  the  sovereign.  The  constitution  of  India  is 
therefore  like  a  house  without  a  foundation  and  without  a 
roof.  It  is  a  principle  of  Hindoo  religion  not  to  kill  a 
worm,  not  even  to  tread  on  a  blade  of  grass,  for  fear  of 
injuring  life ;  but  the  torments,  cruelties,  and  bloodshed 
inflicted  by  Indian  tyrants  would  shock  a  Nero  or  a 
Bcrgia.  Half  the  best  informed  writers  on  India  will  tell 
you  that  the  Brahmanical  religion  is  pure  monotheism ; 
the  other  half  as  confidently  assert  that  they  worship  a 
million  gods.  Some  teach  us  that  the  Hindoos  are  spirit¬ 
ualists  and  pantheists ;  others  that  their  idolatry  is  more 
gross  than  that  of  any  living  people. 

Is  there  any  way  of  reconciling  these  inconsistencies  ? 
If  we  cannot  find  such  an  explanation,  there  is  at  least  one 
central  point  where  we  may  place  ourselves  ;  one  elevated 
position,  from  which  this  mighty  maze  will  not  seem 


BRAHMANISM. 


83 


wholly  without  a  plan.  In  India  the  whole  tendency  of 
thought  is  ideal,  the  whole  religion  a  pure  spiritualism. 
An  ultra,  one-sided  idealism  is  the  central  tendency  of 
the  Hindoo  mind.  The  God  of  Brahmanism  is  an  intel¬ 
ligence,  absorbed  in  the  rest  of  .profound  contemplation. 
The  good  man  of  this  religion  is  he  who  withdraws  from 
an  evil  world  into  abstract  thought. 

Nothing  else  explains  the  Hindoo  character  as  this 
does.  An  eminently  religious  people,  it  is  their  one-sided 
spiritualism,  their  extreme  idealism,  which  gives  rise  to 
all  their  incongruities.  They  have  no  history  and  no  au¬ 
thentic  chronology,  for  history  belongs  to  this  world,  and 
chronology  belongs  to  time.  But  this  world  and  time 
are  to  them  wholly  uninteresting ;  God  and  eternity  are 
all  in  all.  They  torture  themselves  with  self-inflicted 
torments ;  for  the  body  is  the  great  enemy  of  the  soul’s 
salvation,  and  they  must  beat  it  down  by  ascetic  mortifi¬ 
cations.  But  asceticism,  here  as  everywhere  else,  tends 
to  self-indulgence,  since  one  extreme  produces  another. 
In  one  part  of  India,  therefore,  devotees  are  swinging  on 
hooks  in  honor  of  Siva,  hanging  themselves  by  the  feet, 
head  downwards,  over  a  fire,  rolling  on  a  bed  of  prickly 
thorns,  jumping  on  a  couch  filled  with  sharp  knives, 
boring  holes  in  their  tongues,  and  sticking  their  bodies 
full  of  pins  and  needles,  or  perhaps  holding  the  arms 
over  the  head  till  they  stiffen  in  that  position.  Mean¬ 
time  in  other  places  whole  regions  are  given  over  to 
sensual  indulgences,  and  companies  of  abandoned  women 
are  connected  with  different  temples  and  consecrate  their 
gains  to  the  support  of  their  worship. 

As  one-sided  spiritualism  will  manifest  itself  in  morals 
in  the  two  forms  of  austerity  and  sensuality,  so  in  reli¬ 
gion  it  shows  itself  in  the  opposite  direction  of  an  ideal 
pantheism  and  a  gross  idolatry.  Spiritualism  first  fills 
the  world  full  of  God,  and  this  is  a  true  and  Christian 
view  of  things.  But  it  takes  another  step,  which  is  to 
deny  all  real  existence  to  the  world,  and  so  runs  into  a 
false  pantheism.  It  first  says,  truly,  “  There  is  nothing 
without  God.”  It  next  says,  falsely,  “  There  is  nothing 
but  God.”  This  second  step  was  taken  in  India  by  means 


84 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


of  the  doctrine  of  Maya ,  or  Illusion.  Maya  means  the 
delusive  shows  which  spirit  assumes.  For  there  is  nothing 
but  spirit ;  which  neither  creates  nor  is  created,  neither 
acts  nor  suffers,  which  cannot  change,  and  into  which  all 
souls  are  absorbed  when  they  free  themselves  by  medita¬ 
tion  from  the  belief  that  they  suffer  or  are  happy,  that 
they  can  experience  either  pleasure  or  pain.  The  next 
step  is  to  polytheism.  For  if  God  neither  creates  nor 
destroys,  but  only  seems  to  create  and  destroy,  these  ap¬ 
pearances  are  not  united  together  as  being  the  acts  of  one 
Being,  but  are  separate,  independent  phenomena.  When 
you  remove  personality  from  the  conception  of  God,  as 
you  do  in  removing  will,  you  remove  unity.  Now  if 
creation  be  an  illusion,  and  there  be  no  creation,  still  the 
appearance  of  creation  is  a  fact.  But  as  there  is  no  sub¬ 
stance  but  spirit,  this  appearance  must  have  its  cause  in 
spirit,  that  is,  is  a  clivine  appearance,  is  God.  So  destruc¬ 
tion,  in  the  same  way,  is  an  appearance  of  God,  and 
reproduction  is  an  appearance  of  God,  and  every  other 
appearance  in  nature  is  a  manifestation  of  God.  But  the 
unity  of  will  and  person  being  taken  away,  we  have  not 
one  God,  but  a  multitude  of  gods,  —  or  polytheism. 

Having  begun  this  career  of  thought,  no  course  was 
possible  for  the  human  mind  to  pursue  but  this.  An 
ultra  spiritualism  must  become  pantheism,  and  pantheism 
must  go  on  to  polytheism.  In  India  this  is  not  a  theory, 
but  a  history.  We  find,  side  by  side,  a  spiritualism  which 
denies  the  existence  of  anything  but  motionless  spirit  or 
Brahm,  and  a  polytheism  which  believes  and  worships 
Brahma  the  Creator,  Siva  the  Destroyer,  Vischnu  the 
Preserver,  Indra  the  God  of  the  Heavens,  the  Sactis  or 
energies  of  the  gods,  Krishna  the  Hindoo  Apollo,  Doorga, 
and  a  host  of  others,  innumerable  as  the  changes  and 
appearances  of  things. 

But  such  a  system  as  this  must  necessarily  lead  also 
to  idolatry.  There  is  in  the  human  mind  a  tendency  to 
worship,  and  men  must  worship  something.  But  they 
believe  in  one  Being,  the  absolute  Spirit,  the  supreme 
and  only  God,  —  Para  Brahm  ;  him  they  cannot  worship, 
for  he  is  literally  an  unknown  God.  He  has  no  qualities, 


BRAHMANISM. 


85 


no  attributes,  no  activity.  He  is  neither  the  object  of 
hope,  fear,  love,  nor  aversion.  Since  there  is  nothing  in 
the  universe  but  spirit  and  illusive  appearances,  and  they 
cannot  worship  spirit  because  it  is  absolutely  unknown, 
they  must  worship  these  appearances,  which  are  at  any 
rate  divine  appearances,  and  which  do  possess  some  traits, 
qualities,  character;  are  objects  of  hope  and  fear.  But 
they  cannot  worship  them  as  appearances,  they  must 
worship  them  as  persons.  But  if  they  have  an  inward 
personality  or  soul,  they  become  real  beings,  and  also  be¬ 
ings  independent  of  Brahm,  whose  appearances  they  are. 
They  must  therefore  have  an  outward  personality ;  in 
other  words,  a  body,  a  shape,  emblematical  and  character¬ 
istic  ;  that  is  to  say,  they  become  idols. 

Accordingly  idol-worship  is  universal  in  India.  The 
most  horrible  and  grotesque  images  are  carved  in  the 
stone  of  the  grottos,  stand  in  rude,  block-like  statues  in 
the  temple,  or  are  coarsely  painted  on  the  walls.  Figures 
of  men  with  heads  of  elephants  or  of  other  animals,  or 
with  six  or  seven  human  heads,  —  sometimes  growing  in  a 
pyramid,  one  out  of  the  other,  sometimes  with  six  hands 
coming  from  one  shoulder,  —  grisly  and  uncouth  mon¬ 
sters,  like  nothing  in  nature,  yet  too  grotesque  for  sym¬ 
bols, —  such  are  the  objects  of  the  Hindoo  worship. 

§  3.  Helps  from  Comparative  Philology.  The  Aryans  in 

Central  Asia. 

We  have  seen  how  hopeless  the  task  has  appeared  of 
getting  any  definite  light  on  Hindoo  chronology  or  his¬ 
tory.  To  the  ancient  Egyptians  events  were  so  impor¬ 
tant  that  the  most  trivial  incidents  of  daily  life  were 
written  on  stone  and  the  imperishable  records  of  the 
land,  covering  the  tombs  and  obelisks,  have  patiently 
waited  during  long  centuries,  till  their  decipherer  should 
come  to  read  them.  To  the  Hindoos,  on  the  other  hand, 
all  events  were  equally  unimportant.  The  most  unhis- 
toric  people  on  earth,  they  cared  more  for  the  minutiae  of 
grammar,  or  the  subtilties  of  metaphysics,  than  for  the 
whole  of  their  past.  The  only  date  which  has  emerged 


86 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


from  this  vague  antiquity  is  that  of  Chandragupta,  a  con¬ 
temporary  of  Alexander,  and  called  by  the  Greek  histori¬ 
ans  Sandracottus.  He  became  king  B.  c.  315,  and  as,  at 
his  accession,  Buddha  had  been  dead  (by  Hindoo  state¬ 
ment)  one  hundred  and  sixty-two  years,  Buddha  may 
have  died  B.  c.  477.  We  can  thus  import  a  single  date 
from  Greek  history  into  that  of  India.  This  is  the 
whole. 

But  all  at  once  light  dawns  on  us  from  an  unexpected 
quarter.  While  we  can  learn  nothing  concerning  the 
history  of  India  from  its  literature,  and  nothing  from  its 
inscriptions  or  carved  temples,  language  comes  to  our  aid. 
The  fugitive  and  airy  sounds,  which  seem  so  fleeting  and 
so  changeable,  prove  to  be  more  durable  monuments  than 
brass  or  granite.  The  study  of  the  Sanskrit  language  has 
told  us  a  long  story  concerning  the  origin  of  the  Hindoos. 
It  has  rectified  the  ethnology  of  Blumenbach,  has  taught  us 
who  were  the  ancestors  of  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  has 
given  us  the  information  that  one  great  family,  the  Indo- 
European,  has  done  most  of  the  work  of  the  world.  It 
shows  us  that  this  family  consists  of  seven  races,  —  the 
Hindoos,  the  Persians,  the  Greeks,  the  Bomans,  who  all 
emigrated  to  the  south  from  the  original  ancestral  home ; 
and  the  Kelts,  the  Teutons,  and  Slavi,  who  entered  Europe 
on  the  northern  side  of  the  Caucasus  and  the  Caspian 
Sea.  This  has  been  accomplished  by  the  new  science  of 
Comparative  Philology.  A  comparison  of  languages  has 
made  it  too  plain  to  be  questioned,  that  these  seven  races 
were  originally  one ;  that  they  must  have  emigrated  from 
a  region  of  Central  Asia,  at  the  east  of  the  Caspian,  and 
northwest  of  India ;  that  they  were  originally  a  pastoral 
race,  and  gradually  changed  their  habits  as  they  descended 
from  those  great  plains  into  the  valleys  of  the  Indus  and 
the  Euphrates.  In  these  seven  linguistic  families  the 
roots  of  the  most  common  names  are  the  same  ;  the  gram¬ 
matical  constructions  are  also  the  same  ;  so  that  no 
scholar,  who  has  attended  to  the  subject,  can  doubt  that 
the  seven  languages  are  all  daughters  of  one  common 
mother-tongue. 

Pursuing  the  subject  still  further,  it  has  been  found 


BRAHMANISM. 


8T 


possible  to  conjecture  with  no  little  confidence  what  was 
the  condition  of  family  life  in  this  great  race  of  Central 
Asia,  before  its  dispersion.  The  original  stock  has  re¬ 
ceived  the  name  Aryan.  This  designation  occurs  in 
Manu  (II.  22),  who  says  :  “  As  far  as  the  eastern  and 
western  oceans,  between  the  two  mountains,  lies  the  land 
which  the  wise  have  named  Ar-ya-vesta,  or  inhabited  by 
honorable  men.”  The  people  of  Iran  receive  this  same 
appellation  in  the  Zend  Avesta,  with  the  same  meaning 
of  honorable.  Herodotus  testifies  that  the  Medes  were 
formerly  called  "Apiot  (Herod.  VII.  61).  Strabo  men¬ 
tions  that,  in  the  time  of  Alexander,  the  whole  region 
about  the  Indus  was  called  Ariana.  In  modern  times, 
the  word  Iran  for  Persia  and  Erin  for  Ireland  are 
possible  reminiscences  of  the  original  family  appella¬ 
tion. 

The  Ayrans,  long  before  the  age  of  the  Vedas  or  the 
Zend  Avesta,  were  living  as  a  pastoral  people  on  the  great 
plains  east  of  the  Caspian  Sea.  What  their  condition 
was  at  that  epoch  is  deduced  by  the  following  method :  If 
it  is  found  that  the  name  of  any  fact  is  the  same  in  two 
or  more  of  the  seven  tribal  languages  of  this  stock,  it  is 
evident  that  the  name  was  given  to  it  before  they  sepa¬ 
rated.  For  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  two  nations 
living  wide  apart  would  have  independently  selected  the 
same  word  for  the  same  object.  For  example,  since  we 
find  that  house  is  in  Sanskrit  Dama  and  Dam ;  in  Zend, 
Demana ;  in  Greek,  Aopos ;  in  Latin,  Domus ;  in  Irish, 
Dahm  ;  in  Slavonic,  Domic,  —  from  which  root  comes  also 
our  English  word  Domestic,  —  we  may  be  pretty  sure  that 
the  original  Aryans  lived  in  houses.  When  we  learn  that 
boat  was  in  Sanskrit  Nau  or  nauka ;  in  Persian,  Naw, 
nawah  ;  in  Greek,  NaOs- ;  in  Latin,  Navis  ;  in  old  Irish, 
Noi  or  nai ;  in  old  German,  Nawa  or  nawi ;  and  in 
Polish  Nawa,  we  cannot  doubt  that  they  knew  something 
of  what  we  call  in  English  Vertical  affairs,  or  Navigation. 
But  as  the  words  designating  masts,  sails,  yards,  &c.  differ 
wholly  from  each  other  in  all  these  linguistic  families,  it 
is  reasonable  to  infer  that  the  Aryans,  before  their  dis¬ 
persion,  went  only  in  boats,  with  oars,  on  the  rivers  of 


88 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


their  land,  the  Oxus  and  Jaxartes,  and  did  not  sail  any¬ 
where  on  the  sea. 

Pursuing  this  method,  we  see  that  we  can  ask  almost 
any  question  concerning  the  condition  of  the  Aryans,  and 
obtain  an  answer  by  means  of  Comparative  Philology. 

Were  they  a  pastoral  people  ?  The  very  word  pastoral 
gives  us  the  answer.  For  Pa  in  Sanskrit  means  to  watch, 
to  guard,  as  men  guard  cattle,  —  from  which  a  whole 
company  of  words  has  come  in  all  the  Aryan  languages. 

The  results  of  this  method  of  inquiry,  so  far  as  given 
by  Pictet,  are  these.  Some  3000  years  b.  c.,*  the  Aryans, 
as  yet  undivided  into  Hindoos,  Persians,  Kelts,  Latins, 
Greeks,  Teutons,  and  Slavi,  were  living  in  Central  Asia, 
in  a  region  of  which  Bactriana  was  the  centre.  Here 
they  must  have  remained  long  enough  to  have  developed 
their  admirable  language,  the  mother-tongue  of  those 
which  we  know.  They  were  essentially  a  pastoral,  but 
not  a  nomad  people,  having  fixed  homes.  They  had  oxen, 
horses,  sheep,  goats,  hogs,  and  domestic  fowls.  Herds  of 
cows  fed  in  pastures,  each  the  property  of  a  community, 
and  each  with  a  cluster  of  stables  in  the  centre.  The 
daughters  f  of  the  house  were  the  dairy-maids ;  the  food 
was  chiefly  the  products  of  the  dairy  and  the  flesh  of  the 
cattle.  The  cow  was,  however,  the  most  important  ani¬ 
mal,  and  gave  its  name  to  many  plants,  and  even  to  tho 
clouds  and  stars,  in  which  men  saw  heavenly  herds  pass¬ 
ing  over  the  firmament  above  them. 

But  the  Aryans  were  not  an  exclusively  pastoral  people ; 
they  certainly  had  barley,  and  perhaps  other  cereals,  be¬ 
fore  their  dispersion.  They  possessed  the  plough,  the 
mill  for  grinding  grain ;  they  had  hatchet, j  hammer,  auger. 
The  Aryans  were  acquainted  with  several  metals,  among 

*  All  Indian  dates  older  than  300  b.  c.  are  uncertain.  The  reasons 
for  this  one  are  given  carefully  and  in  full  by  Pictet. 

t  Our  English  word  daughter,  together  with  the  Greek  Ovy&T-rjp,  the 
Zend  dughdar,  the  Persian  dochtar,  &c.,  corresponds  with  the  Sanskrit 
duhitar,  which  means  both  daughter  and  milkmaid. 

J  Hatchet,  in  Sanskrit  takshani,  in  Zend  tasha,  in  Persian  tash,  Greek 
r6xos,  Irish  tuagh,  Old  German  dcksa,  Polish  tasak,  Russian  tesaku. 
And  what  is  remarkable,  the  root  tak  appears  in  the  name  of  the  hatchet 
in  the  languages  of  the  South  Sea  Islanders  and  the  North  American 
Indians, 


BRAHMANISM. 


89* 


which,  were  gold,  silver,  copper,  tin.  They  knew  how  to 
spin  and  weave  to  some  extent ;  they  were  acquainted 
with  pottery.  How  their  houses  were  built  we  do  not 
know,  but  they  contained  doors,  windows,  and  fireplaces. 
They  had  cloaks  or  mantles,  they  boiled  and  roasted  meat, 
and  certainly  used  soup.  They  had  lances,  swords,  the 
bow  and  arrow,  shields,  but  not  armor.  They  had  family 
life,  some  simple  laws,  games,  the  dance,  and  wind  instru¬ 
ments.  They  had  the  decimal  numeration,  and  their 
year  was  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  days.  They  wor¬ 
shipped  the  heaven,  earth,  sun,  fire,  water,  wind ;  but 
there  are  also  plain  traces  of  an  earlier  monotheism,  from 
which  this  nature-worship  proceeded. 

§  4.  The  Aryans  in  India.  The  Native  Races.  The 
Vedic  Age.  Theology  of  the  Vedas. 

So  far  Comparative  Philology  takes  us,  and  the  next 
step  forward  brings  us  to  the  Yedas,  the  oldest  works  in 
the  Hindoo  literature,  but  at  least  one  thousand  or  fifteen 
hundred  years  more  recent  than  the  times  we  have  been 
describing.  The  Aryans  have  separated,  and  the  Hindoos 
are  now  in  India.  It  is  eleven  centuries  before  the  time 
of  Alexander.  They  occupy  the  region  between  the  Pun- 
jaub  and  the  Ganges,  and  here  was  accomplished  the 
transition  of  the  Aryans  from  warlike  shepherds  into 
agriculturists  and  builders  of  cities .* 

The  last  hymns  of  the  Yedas  were  written  (says  St. 
Martin)  when  they  arrived  from  the  Indus  at  the  Ganges, 
and  were  building  their  oldest  city,  at  the  confluence  of 
that  river  with  the  Jumna.  Their  complexion  was  then 
white,  and  they  call  the  race  whom  they  conquered,  and 
who  afterward  were  made  Soudras,  or  lowest  caste,  blacks.*)* 

*  M.  Vivien  de  Saint-Martin  has  determined  more  precisely  than  has 
been  done  before  the  primitive  country  of  the  Aryans,  and  the  route  fol¬ 
lowed  by  them  in  penetrating  into  India.  They  descended  through  Cabul 
to  the  Punjaub,  having  previously  reached  Cabul  from  the  region  *  be¬ 
tween  the  Jaxartes  and  the  Oxus. 

+  The  Rig- Veda  distinguishes  the  Aryans  from  the  Dasjus.  Mr.  Muir 
quotes  a  multitude  of  texts  in  which  Indra  is  called  upon  to  protect  the 
former  and  slay  the  latter.  _ 


90 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  chief  gods  of  the  Yedic  age  were  Indra,  Varuna,  Agni, 
Savitri,  Soma.  The  first  was  the  god  of  the  atmosphere  ; 
the  second,  of  the  Ocean  of  light,  or  Heaven ;  the  third,  of 
Fire ;  *  the  fourth,  of  the  Sun  ;  and  the  fifth,  of  the  Moon. 
Yama  was  the  god  of  death.  All  the  powers  of  nature 
were  personified  in  turn,  —  as  earth,  food,  wine,  months, 
seasons,  day,  night,  and  dawn.  Among  all  these  divini¬ 
ties,  Indra  and  Agni  were  the  chief.*)*  But  behind  this  in¬ 
cipient  polytheism  lurks  the  original  monotheism, —  for 
each  of  these  gods,  in  turn,  becomes  the  Supreme  Being. 
The  universal  Deity  seems  to  become  apparent,  first 
in  one  form  of  nature  and  then  in  another.  Such  is 
the  opinion  of  Colebrooke,  who  says  that  "  the  ancient 
Hindoo  religion  recognizes  but  one  God,  not  yet  suffi¬ 
ciently  discriminating  the  creature  from  the  Creator.” 
And  Max  Muller  says :  “  The  hymns  celebrate  Varuna, 
Indra,  Agni,  &c.,  and  each  in  turn  is  called  supreme.  The 
whole  mythology  is  fluent.  The  powers  of  nature  become 
moral  beings.” 

Max  Miiller  adds :  “  It  would  be  easy  to  find,  in  the 
numerous  hymns  of  the  Veda,  passages  in  which  almost 
every  single  god  is  represented  as  supreme  and  absolute. 
Agni  is  called  ‘  Euler  of  the  Universe’;  Indra  is  cele¬ 
brated  as  the  Strongest  god,  and  in  one  hymn  it  is  said, 
‘  Indra  is  stronger  than  all.’  It  is  said  of  Soma  that  ‘  he 
conquers  every  one.’  ” 

But  clearer  traces  of  monotheism  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Vedas.  In  one  hymn  of  the  Big- Veda  it  is  said :  “  They 
call  him  Indra,  Mitra,  Varuna,  Agni ;  then  he  is  the  well¬ 
winged  heavenly  Garutmat ;  that  which  is  One,  the  wise 
call  it  many  ways  ;  they  call  it  Agni,  Yama,  Matarisvan.” 

Nothing,  however,  will  give  us  so  good  an  idea  of  the 
character  of  these  Vedic  hymns  as  the  hymns  themselves. 
I  therefore  select  a  few  of  the  most  striking  of  those 
which  have  been  translated  by  Colebrooke,  Wilson,  M. 
Muller,  E.  Bumonfc,  and  others. 

In  the  following,  from  one  of  the  oldest  Vedas,  the 
unity  of  God  seems  very  clearly  expressed. 

*  Agni,  whence  Ignis,  in  Latin. 

+  See  Talboys  Wheeler,  “  History  of  India.” 


BRAHMANISM. 


91 


Rig- Veda,  X.  121. 

“  In  the  beginning  there  arose  the  Source  of  golden  light. 
He  was  the  only  born  Lord  of  all  that  is.  He  established  the 
earth,  and  this  sky.  Who  is  the  God  to  whom  we  shall  offer 
our  sacrifice  1 

“  He  who  gives  life.  He  who  gives  strength ;  whose  blessing 
all  the  bright  gods  desire ;  whose  shadow  is  immortality, 
whose  shadow  is  death.  Who  is  the  God  to  whom  we  shall 
offer  our  sacrifice'? 

“  He  who  through  his  power  is  the  only  king  of  the  breath¬ 
ing  and  awakening  world.  He  who  governs  all,  man  and  beast. 
Who  is  the  god  to  whom  we  shall  offer  our  sacrifice  1 

“  He  whose  power  these  snowy  mountains,  whose  power  the 
sea  proclaims,  with  the  distant  river.  He  whose  these  regions 
are,  as  it  were  his  two  arms.  Who  is  the  god  to  whom  we 
shall  offer  our  sacrifice  1 

“  He  through  whom  the  sky  is  bright  and  the  earth  firm. 
He  through  whom  heaven  was  stablished ;  nay,  the  highest 
heaven.  He  who  measured  out  the  light  in  the  air.  Who  is 
the  god  to  whom  we  shall  offer  our  sacrifice  1 

“  He  to  whom  heaven  and  earth,  standing  firm  by  his  will, 
look  up,  trembling  inwardly.  He  over  whom  the  rising  sun 
shines  forth.  Who  is  the  god  to  whom  we  shall  offer  our 
sacrifice  1 

“Wherever  the  mighty  water-clouds  went,  where  they 
placed  the  seed  and  lit  the  fire,  thence  arose  he  who  is  the 
only  life  of  the  bright  gods.  Who  is  the  god  to  whom  we 
shall  offer  our  sacrifice  % 

“  He  wdio  by  his  might  looked  even  over  the  water-clouds, 
the  clouds  which  gave  strength  and  lit  the  sacrifice  ;  lie  who  is 
God  above  all  gods.  Who  is  the  god  to  whom  we  shall  offer 
our  sacrifice  1 

“May  he  not  destroy  us,  — he  the  creator  of  the  earth,  — 
or  he,  the  righteous,  who  created  heaven ;  he  who  also  created 
the  bright  and  mighty  waters.  Who  is  the  god  to  whom  we 
shall  offer  our  sacrifices  *?  ”  * 

*  Muller’s  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature,  page  569.  He  adds  the  follow¬ 
ing  remarks:  “  There  is  nothing  to  prove  that  this  hymn  is  of  a  particu¬ 
larly  ancient  date.  On  the  contrary,  there  are  expressions  in  it  which 
seem  to  belong  to  a  later  age.  But  even  if  we  assign  the  lowest  possible 
date  to  this  and  similar  hymns,  certain  it  is  that  they  existed  during  the 
Mantra  period,  and  before  the  composition  of  the  Brahmanas.  For, 
in  spite  of  all  the  indications  of  a  modern  date,  I  see  no  possibility  how 


92 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  oldest  and  most  striking  account  of  creation  is  in 
the  eleventh  chapter  of  the  tenth  Book  of  the  Big-Veda. 
Colebrooke,  Max  Muller,  Muir,  and  Goldstiicker,  all  give 
a  translation  of  this  remarkable  hymn  and  speak  of  it 
with  admiration.  We  take  that  of  Colebrooke,  modified 
by  that  of  Muir :  — 

“Then  there  was  no  entity  nor  non-entity;  no  world,  no 
sky,  nor  aught  above  it ;  nothing  anywhere,  involving  or 
involved;  nor  water  deep  and  dangerous.  Death  was  not, 
and  therefore  no  immortality,  nor  distinction  of  day  or  night. 
But  That  One  breathed  calmly*  alone  with  Nature,  her  who 
is  sustained  within  him.  Other  than  Him,  nothing  existed 
[which]  since  [has  been].  Darkness  there  was ;  [for]  this 
universe  was  enveloped  with  darkness,  and  was  indistinguisha¬ 
ble  waters ;  but  that  mass,  which  was  covered  by  the  husk, 
was  [at  length]  produced  by  the  power  of  contemplation. 
First  desire  f  was  formed  in  his  mind ;  and  that  became  the 
original  productive  seed ;  which  the  wise,  recognizing  it  by  the 
intellect  in  their  hearts,  distinguish  as  the  bond  of  nonentity 
with  entity. 

“Did  the  luminous  ray  of  these  [creative  acts]  expand  in  the 
middle,  or  above,  or  below  1  That  productive  energy  became 
providence  [or  sentient  souls],  and  matter  [or  the  elements]  ; 
Nature,  who  is  sustained  within,  was  inferior;  and  he  who 
sustains  was  above. 

“  Who  knows  exactly,  and  who  shall  in  this  world  declare, 
whence  and  why  this  creation  took  place  %  The  gods  are  sub¬ 
sequent  to  the  production  of  this  world  :  then  who  can  know 
whence  it  proceeded,  or  whence  this  varied  world  arose,  or 
whether  it  upholds  [itself]  or  not  1  He  who  in  the  highest 
heaven  is  the  ruler  of  this  universe,  —  he  knows,  or  does  not 
know.” 

If  the  following  hymn,  says  Muller,  were  addressed  only 
to  the  Almighty,  omitting  the  word  “  Varuna,”  it  would 
not  disturb  us  in  a  Christian  Liturgy  :  — 

we  could  account  for  the  allusions  to  it  which  occur  in  the  Brahmanas,  or 
for  its  presence  in  the  Sanhitas,  unless  we  admit  that  this  poem  formed 
part  of  the  final  collection  of  the  Rig-veda-Sanhita,  the  work  of  the 
Mantra  period. 

*  Max  Muller  translates  “breathed,  breathless  by  itself;  other  than 
it  nothing  since  has  been.” 

t  Max  Muller  says,  “  Love  fell  upon  it.” 


BRAHMANISM. 


93 


1.  “  Let  me  not  yet,  0  Yaruna,  enter  into  the  house  of 
clay  ;  have  mercy,  almighty,  have  mercy. 

2.  “  If  I  go  along  trembling,  like  a  cloud  driven  by  the  wind, 
have  mercy,  almighty,  have  mercy  ! 

3.  “  Through  want  of  strength,  thou  strong  and  bright 
god,  have  I  gone  to  the  wrong  shore ;  have  mercy,  almighty, 
have  mercy  ! 

4.  “  Thirst  came  upon  the  worshipper,  though  he  stood  in 
the  midst  of  the  waters ;  have  mercy,  almighty,  have  mercy  ! 

5.  “  Whenever  we  men,  0  Yaruna,  commit  an  offence  before 
the  heavenly  host ;  whenever  we  break  thy  law  through 
thoughtlessness  ;  have  mercy,  almighty,  have  mercy  !  ” 

Out  of  a  large  number  of  hymns  addressed  to  Indra, 
Muller  selects  one  that  is  ascribed  to  Vasishtha. 

1.  “  Let  no  one,  not  even  those  who  worship  thee;  delay  thee 
far  from  us  !  Even  from  afar  come  to  our  feast  !  Or,  if  thou 
art  here,  listen  to  us  ! 

2.  “For  these  who  here  make  prayers  for  thee,  sit  together 
near  the  libation,  like  flies  round  the  honey.  The  worshippers, 
anxious  for  wealth,  have  placed  their  desire  upon  Indra,  as  we 
put  our  foot  upon  a  chariot. 

3.  “  Desirous  of  riches,  I  call  him  who  holds  the  thunderbolt 
with  his  arm,  and  who  is  a  good  giver,  like  as  a  son  calls  his 
father. 

4.  “  These  libations  of  Soma,  mixed  with  milk,  have  been 
prepared  for  Indra  :  thou,  armed  with  the  thunderbolt,  come 
with  the  steeds  to  drink  of  them  for  thy  delight ;  come  to  the 
house  ! 

5.  “  May  he  hear  us,  for  he  has  ears  to  hear.  He  is  asked 
for  riches  ;  will  he  despise  our  prayers  1  He  could  soon  give 
hundreds  and  thousands ;  —  no  one  could  check  him  if  he 
wishes  to  give.” 

13.  “Make  for  the  sacred  gods  a  hymn  that  is  not  small, 
that  is  well  set  and  beautiful  !  Many  snares  pass  by  him  who 
abides  with  Indra  through  his  sacrifice. 

1 4.  “  What  mortal  dares  to  attack  him  who  is  rich  in  thee  1 
Through  faith  in  thee,  0  mighty,  the  strong  acquires  spoil  in 
the  day  of  battle.” 

17.  “  Thou  art  wTell  known  as  the  benefactor  of  every  one, 
whatever  battles  there  be.  Every  one  of  these  kings  of  the 
earth  implores  thy  name,  when  wishing  for  help. 

18.  “  If  I  were  lord  of  as  much  as  thou,  I  should  support  the 


94 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


sacred  bard,  thou  scatterer  of  wealth,  I  should  not  abandon 
him  to  misery. 

19.  “I  should  award  wealth  day  by  day  to  him  who  mag¬ 
nifies  ;  I  should  award  it  to  whosoever  it  be.  We  have  no 
other  friend  but  thee,  no  other  happiness,  no  other  father,  0 
mighty  !  ” 

22.  “  We  call  for  thee,  0  hero,  like  cows  that  have  not  been 
milked  ;  we  praise  thee  as  ruler  of  all  that  moves,  0  Indra,  as 
ruler  of  all  that  is  immovable. 

23.  “  There  is  no  one  like  thee  in  heaven  and  earth  ;  he  is 
not  born,  and  will  not  be  bora.  0  mighty  Indra,  we  call 
upon  thee  as  we  go  fighting  for  cows  and  horses.” 

“  In  this  hymn,”  says  Muller,  “  Indra  is  clearly  con¬ 
ceived  as  the  Supreme  God,  and  we  can  hardly  understand 
how  a  people  who  had  formed  so  exalted  a  notion  of  the 
Deity  and  embodied  it  in  the  person  of  Indra,  could,  at  the 
same  sacrifice,  invoke  other  gods  with  equal  praise.  When 
Agni,  the  lord  of  fire,  is  addressed  by  the  poet,  he  is 
spoken  of  as  the  first  god,  not  inferior  even  to  Indra. 
While  Agni  is  invoked  Indra  is  forgotten ;  there  is  no 
competition  between  the  two,  nor  any  rivalry  between 
them  and  other  gods.  This  is  a  most  important  feature  in 
the  religion  of  the  Veda,  and  has  never  been  taken  into 
consideration  by  those  who  have  written  on  the  history 
of  ancient  polytheism.”  * 

“  It  is  curious,”  says  Muller,  “  to  watch  the  almost  im¬ 
perceptible  transition  by  which  the  phenomena  of  nature, 
if  reflected  in  the  mind  of  the  poet,  assume  the  character 
of  divine  beings.  The  dawn  is  frequently  described  in 
the  Veda  as  it  might  be  described  by  a  modern  poet.  She 
is  the  friend  of  men,  she  smiles  like  a  young  wife,  she  is 
the  daughter  of  the  sky.”  “  But  the  transition  from  devi, 
the  bright,  to  devi ,  the  goddess,  is  so  easy ;  the  daughter 
of  the  sky  assumes  so  readily  the  same  personality  which 
is  given  to  the  sky,  Dyaus,  her  father,  that  we  can  only 
guess  whether  in  every  passage  the  poet  is  speaking  of  a 
"bright  apparition,  or  of  a  bright  goddess;  of  a  natural 
vision,  or  of  a  visible  deity.  The  following  hymn  of  Va- 
shishtha  will  serve  as  an  instance :  — 


*  Muller,  Sanskrit  Lit.,  p.  546. 


BRAHMANISM. 


95 


* 

“She  shines  upon  us,  like  a  young  wife,  rousing  every  living 
being  to  go  to  his  work.  The  fire  had  to  be  kindled  by  men ; 
she  brought  light  by  striking  down  darkness. 

“  She  rose  up,  spreading  far  and  wide,  and  moving  towards 
every  one.  She  grew  in  brightness,  wearing  her  brilliant 
garment.  The  mother  of  the  cows -(of  the  morning  clouds), 
the  leader  of  the  days,  she  shone  gold-colored,  lovely  to  behold. 

“She,  the  fortunate,  who  brings  the  eye  of  the  god,  who 
leads  the  white  and  lovely  steed  (of  the  sun),  the  Dawn  was 
seen,  revealed  by  her  rays ;  with  brilliant  treasures  she  follows 
every  one. 

“  Thou,  who  art  a  blessing  where  thou  art  near,  drive  far 
away  the  unfriendly ;  make  the  pastures  wide,  give  us  safety ! 
Remove  the  haters,  bring  treasures  !  Raise  wealth  to  the 
worshipper,  thou  mighty  Dawn. 

“Shine  for  us  with  thy  best  rays,  thou  bright  Dawn,  thou 
who  lengthenest  our  life,  thou  the  love  of  all,  who  givest  us 
food,  who  givest  us  wealth  in  cows,  horses,  and  chariots. 

“  Thou,  daughter  of  the  sky,  thou  high-born  Dawn,  whom 
the  Yasishthas  magnify  with  songs,  give  us  riches  high  and 
wide  :  all  ye  gods,  protect  us  always  with  your  blessings !  ” 

“  This  hymn,  addressed  to  the  Dawn,  is  a  fair  specimen 
of  the  original  simple  poetry  of  the  Veda.  It  has  no 
reference  to  any  special  sacrifice,  it  contains  no  technical 
expressions,  it  can  hardly  be  called  a  hymn,  in  our  sense 
of  the  word.  It  is  simply  a  poem  expressing,  without 
any  effort,  without  any  display  of  far-fetched  thought  or 
brilliant  imagery,  the  feelings  of  a  man  who  has  watched 
the  approach  of  the  Dawn  with  mingled  delight  and  awe, 
and  who  was  moved  to  give  utterance  to  what  he  felt  in 
measured  language.”  * 

“  But  there  is  a  charm  in  these  primitive  strains  dis¬ 
coverable  in  no  other  class  of  poetry.  Every  word  retains 
something  of  its  radical  meaning,  every  epithet  tells, 
every  thought,  in  spite  of  the  most  intricate  and  abrupt 
expressions,  is,  if  we  once  disentangle  it,  true,  correct,  and 
complete.” 

The  Yedic  literature  is  divided  by  Muller  into  four 
periods,  namely,  those  of  the  Chhandas,  Mantra,  Brahman  a, 
and  Sutras.  The  Chhandas  period  contains  the  oldest 

*  Muller,  Sanskrit  Lit.,  p.  552.  +  Ibid.,  p.  553. 


96 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


hymns  of  the  oldest,  or  Big-Yeda.  To  that  of  the  Man¬ 
tras  belong  the  later  hymns  of  the  same  Yeda.  But  the 
most  modern  of  these  are  older  than  the  Brahmanas. 
The  Brahmanas  contain  theology ;  the  older  Mantras  are 
liturgic.  Miiller  says  that  the  Brah manas,  though  so 
very  ancient,  are  full  of  pedantiy,  shallow  and  insipid 
grandiloquence  and  priestly  conceit.  Next  to  these,  in 
the  order  of  time,  are  the  Upanishads.  These  are  philo¬ 
sophical,  and  almost  the  only  part  of  the  Yedas  which 
are  read  at  the  present  time.  They  are  believed  to  con¬ 
tain  the  highest  authority  for  the  different  philosophical 
systems,  of  which  we  shall  speak  hereafter.  Their  authors 
are  unknown.  More  modern  than  these  are  the  Sutras. 
The  word  “  Sutra”  means  string ,  and  they  consist  of  a  string 
of  short  sentences.  Conciseness  is  the  aim  in  this  style, 
and  every  doctrine  is  reduced  to  a  skeleton.  The  numer¬ 
ous  Sutras  now  extant  contain  the  distilled  essence  of  all 
the  knowledge  which  the  Brahmans  have  collected  during 
centuries  of  meditation.  They  belong  to  the  non-revealed 
literature,  as  distinguished  from  the  revealed  literature,  — 
a  distinction  made  by  the  Brahmans  before  the  time  of 
Buddha.  At  the  time  of  the  Buddhist  controversy  the 
Sutras  were  admitted  to  be  of  human  origin  and  were 
consequently  recent  works.  The  distinction  between  the 
Sutras  and  Brahmanas  is  very  marked,  the  second  being 
revealed.  The  Brahmanas  were  composed  by  and  for 
Brahmans  and  are  in  three  collections.  The  Yedangas  are 
intermediate  between  the  Yedic  and  non-Vedic  literature. 
Panini,  the  grammarian  of  India,  was  said  to  be  contem¬ 
porary  with  King  Nanda,  who  was  the  successor  of  Chan- 
dragupta,  the  contemporary  of  Alexander,  and  therefore 
in  the  second  half  of  the  fourth  century  before  Christ. 
Dates  are  so  precarious  in  Indian  literature,  says  Max 
Muller,  that  a  confirmation  within  a  century  or  two  is 
not  to  be  despised.  Now  the  grammarian  Katyayana 
completed  and  corrected  the  grammar  of  Panini,  and 
Patanjeli  wrote  an  immense  commentary  on  the  two 
which  became  so  famous  as  to  be  imported  by  royal 
authority  into  Cashmere,  in  the  first  half  of  the  first 
century  of  our  era.  Muller  considers  the  limits  of  the 


BRAHMANISM. 


97 


Sfitra  period  to  extend  from  600  B.  c.  to  200  B.  c. 
Buddhism  before  Asoka  was  but  modified  Brahmanism. 
The  basis  of  Indian  chronology  is  the  date  of  Chandra- 
gupta.  All  dates  before  his  time  are  merely  hypothetical. 
Several  classical  writers  speak  of  him  as  founding  an 
empire  on  the  Ganges  soon  after  the  invasion  of  Alex¬ 
ander.  He  was  grandfather  of  Asoka.  Indian  traditions 
refer  to  this  king. 

Beturning  to  the  Brahmana  period,  we  notice  that 
between  the  Sutras  and  Brahmanas  come  the  Aranyakas, 
which  are  books  written  for  the  recluse.  Of  these  the 
Upanishads,  before  mentioned,  form  part.  They  presup¬ 
pose  the  existence  of  the  Brahmanas. 

Bammohun  Boy  was  surprised  that  Dr.  Bosen  should 
have  thought  it  worth  while  to  publish  the  hymns  of  the 
Veda,  and  considered  the  Upanishads  the  only  Yedic 
books  worth  reading.  They  speak  of  the  divine  Self,  of 
the  Eternal  Word  in  the  heavens  from  which  the  hymns 
came.  The  divine  Self  they  say  is  not  to  be  grasped  by 
tradition,  reason,  or  revelation,  but  only  by  him  whom  he 
himself  grasps.  In  the  beginning  was  Self  alone.  At¬ 
man  is  the  Self  in  all  our  selves,  —  the  Divine  Self  con¬ 
cealed  by  his  own  qualities.  This  Self  they  sometimes 
call  the  Undeveloped  and  sometimes  the  Hot-Being. 
There  are  ten  of  the  old  Upanishads,  all  of  which  have 
been  published.  Anquetil  Du  Perron  translated  fifty  into 
Latin  out  of  Persian. 

The  Brahmanas  are  very  numerous.  Muller  gives 
stories  from  them  and  legends.  They  relate  to  sacrifices, 
to  the  story  of  the  deluge,  and  other  legends.  They  sub¬ 
stituted  these  legends  for  the  simple  poetry  of  the  ancient 
Vedas.  They  must  have  extended  over  at  least  two 
hundred  years,  and  contained  long  lists  of  teachers. 

Muller  supposes  that  writing  was  unknown  when  the 
Big- Veda  was  composed.  The  thousand  and  ten  hymns 
of  the  Vedas  contain  no  mention  of  writing  or  books,  any 
more  than  the  Homeric  poems.  There  is  no  allusion  to 
writing  during  the  whole  of  the  Brahmana  period,  nor 
even  through  the  Sutra  period.  This  seems  incredible  to 
ns,  says  Muller,  only  because  our  memory  has  been  sys- 


93 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


tematically  debilitated  by  newspapers  and  the  like  during 
many  generations.  It  was  the  business  of  every  Brahman 
to  learn  by  heart  the  Yedas  during  the  twelve  years  of 
his  student  life.  The  Guru,  or  teacher,  pronounces  a 
group  of  words,  and  the  pupils  repeat  after  him.  After 
writing  was  introduced,  the  Brahmans  were  strictly  forbid¬ 
den  to  read  the  Yedas,  or  to  write  them.  Caesar  says  the 
same  of  the  Druids.  Even  Panini  never  alludes  to  writ¬ 
ten  words  or  letters.  None  of  the  ordinary  modern 
words  for  book,  paper,  ink,  or  writing  have  been  found  in 
any  ancient  Sanskrit  work.  No  such  words  as  nolumen> 
volume  ;  liber ,  or  inner  bark  of  a  tree  ;  byblos,  inner  bark 
of  papyrus  ;  or  book,  that  is  beech  wood.  But  Buddha 
had  learnt  to  write,  as  we  find  by  a  book  translated  into 
Chinese  A.  D.  76.  In  this  book  Buddha  instructs  his 
teacher ;  as  in  the  “  Gospel  of  the  Infancy  ”  Jesus  explains 
to  his  teacher  the  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet.  So 
Buddha  tells  his  teacher  the  names  of  sixty-four  alphabets. 
The  first  authentic  inscription  in  India  is  of  Buddhist 
origin,  belonging  to  the  third  century  before  Christ. 

In  the  most  ancient  Yedic  period  the  language  had  be¬ 
come  complete.  There  is  no  growing  language  in  the  Vedas. 

In  regard  to  the  age  of  these  Yedic  writings,  we  will 
quote  the  words  of  Max  Muller,  at  the  conclusion  of  his 
admirable  work  on  the  “  History  of  Ancient  Sanskrit 
Literature,”  from  which  most  of  this  section  has  been 
taken :  — 

“  Oriental  scholars  are  frequently  suspected  of  a  desire  to 
make  the  literature  of  the  Eastern  nations  appear  more  ancient 
than  it  is.  As  to  myself,  I  can  truly  say  that  nothing  would 
be  to  me  a  more  welcome  discovery,  nothing  would  remove  so 
many  doubts  and  difficulties,  as  some  suggestions  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  certain  of  the  Yedic  hymns  could  have  been 
added  :to  the  original  collection  during  the  Bralimana  or  Sutra 
periods,  or,  if  possible,  by  the  writers  of  our  MSS.,  of  which 
most  are  not  older  than  the  fifteenth  century.  But  these 
MSS.,  though  so  modern,  are  checked  by  the  Anukramanis. 
Every  hymn  which  stands  in  our  MSS.  is  counted  in  the  Index 
of  Saunaka,  who  is  anterior  to  the  invasion  of  Alexander.  The 
Sutras,  belonging  to  the  same  period  as  Saunaka,  prove  the 
previous  existence  of  every  chapter  of  the  Brahmanas ;  and  I 


BRAHMANISM. 


99 


doubt  whether  there  is  a  single  hymn  in  the  Sanhita  of  the 
Rig-Veda  which  could  not  be  checked  by  some  passage  of  the 
Brahmanas  and  Sutras.  The  chronological  limits  assigned  to 
the  Sutra  and  Brahmana  periods  will  seem  to  most  Sanskrit 
scholars  too  narrow  rather  than  too  wide,  and  if  we  assign  but 
two  hundred  years  to  the  Mantra-  period,  from  800  to  1000 
b.  c.,  and  an  equal  number  to  the  Chhandas  period,  from  1000 
to  1200  b.  c.,  we  can  do  so  only  under- the  supposition  that 
during  the  early  periods  of  history  the  growth  of  the  human 
mind  was  more  luxuriant  than  in  later  times,  and  that  the 
layers  of  thought  were  formed  less  slowly  in  the  primary  than 
in  the  tertiary  ages  of  the  world.” 

The  Yedic  age,  according  to  Miiller,  will  then  be  as 
follows :  — 

Sutra  period,  from  b.  c.  200  to  b.  c.  600. 

Brahmana  period,  “  “  600  “  800. 

Mantra  period,  “  “  800  “  1000. 

Chhandas  period,  “  “  1000  “  1200. 

Dr.  Haug,  a  high  authority,  considers  the  Yedic  period 
to  extend  from  b.  c.  1200  to  B.  c.  2000,  and  the  very  oldest 
hymns  to  have  been  composed  B.  c.  2400. 

The  principal  deity  in  the  oldest  Yedas  is  Indra,  God 
of  the  air.  In  Greek  he  becomes  Zeus  ;  in  Latin,  Jupi¬ 
ter.  The  hymns  to  Indra  are  not  unlike  some  of  the 
Psalms  of  the  Old  Testament.  Indra  is  called  upon  as 
the  most  ancient  god  whom  the  Fathers  worshipped. 
Next  to  India  comes  Agni,  fire,  derived  from  the  root  Ag, 
which  means  “  to  move.”  *  Fire  is  worshipped  as  the  prin¬ 
ciple  of  motion  on  earth,  as  Indra  was  the  moving  power 
above.  Not  only  fire,  but  the  forms  of  flame,  are  wor¬ 
shipped  and  all  that  belongs  to  it.  Entire  nature  is 
called  Aditi,  whose  children  are  named  Adityas.  M. 
Maury  quotes  these  words  from  Gotama  :  “  Aditi  is 
heaven ;  Aditi  is  air ;  Aditi  is  mother,  father,  and  son ; 
Aditi  is  all  the  gods  and  the  five  races ;  Aditi  is  what¬ 
ever  is  born  and  will  be  born ;  in  short,  the  heavens  and 
the  earth,  the  heavens  being  the  father  and  the  earth  the 
mother  of  all  things.  This  reminds  one  of  the  Greek 
Zeus-pateer  and  Gee-meteer.  Yaruna  is  the  vault  of 


*  That  heat  was  “a  form  of  motion  ”  was  thus  early  discovered. 


100 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


heaven.  Mitra  is  often  associated  with  Varuna  in  the 
Yedic  hymns.  Mitra  is  the  sun,  illuminating  the  day, 
while  Yaruna  was  the  sun  with  an  obscure  face  going- 
hack  in  the  darkness  from  west  to  east  to  take  his  lumi¬ 
nous  disk  again.  From  Mitra  seems  to  be  derived  the 
Persian  Mithra.  There  are  no  invocations  to  the  stars 
in  the  Yeda.  But  the  Aurora,  or  Dawn,  is  the  object  of 
great  admiration ;  also,  the  Aswins,  or  twin  gods,  who 
in  Greece  become  the  Dioscuri.  The  god  of  storms  is 
Budra,  supposed  by  some  writers  to  be  the  same  as  Siva. 
The  two  hostile  worships  of  Yislmu  and  Siva  do  not  ap¬ 
pear,  however,  till  long  after  this  time.  Yislmu  appears 
frequently  in  the  Yeda,  and  his  three  steps  are  often 
spoken  of.  These  steps  measure  the  heavens.  But  his 
real  worship  came  much  later. 

The  religion  of  the  Yedas  was  of  odes  and  hymns,  a 
religion  of  worship  by  simple  adoration.  Sometimes  there 
were  prayers  for  temporal  blessings,  sometimes  simple 
sacrifices  and  libations.  Human  sacrifices  have  scarcely 
left  any  trace  of  themselves  if  they  ever  existed,  un¬ 
less  it  be  in  a  typical  ceremony  reported  in  one  of  the 
Yedas. 

§  5.  Second  Period.  Laws  of  Manu.  The  Brahmanic  Age. 

Long  after  the  age  of  the  elder  Yedas  Brahmanism  be¬ 
gins.  Its  text-book  is  the  Laws  of  Manu.*  As  yet 
Yishnu  and  Siva  are  not  known.  The  former  is  named 
once,  the  latter  not  at  all.  The  writer  only  knows  three 
Yedas.  The  Atharva-Veda  is  later.  But  as  Siva  is  men¬ 
tioned  in  the  oldest  Buddhist  writings,  it  follows  that  the 
laws  of  Manu  are  older  than  these.  In  the  time  of  Manu 
the  Aryans  are  still  living  in  the  valley  of  the  Ganges. 
The  caste  system  is  now  in  full  operation,  and  the  author¬ 
ity  of  the  Brahman  is  raised  to  its  highest  point.  The 
Indus  and  Punjaub  are  not  mentioned  ;  all  this  is  forgot¬ 
ten.  This  work  could  not  be  later  than  B.  c.  700,  or 
earlier  than  B.  c.  1200.  It  was  probably  written  about 

*  It  is  the  opinion  of  Maine  (“Ancient  Law”)  and  other  eminent 
scholars,  that  this  code  was  never  fully  accepted  or  enforced  in  India, 
and  remained  always  an  ideal  of  the  perfect  Brahmanic  state. 


BRAHMANISM. 


101 


B.  c.  900  or  B.  c.  1000.  In  this  view  agree  Wilson,  Las¬ 
sen,  Max  Miiller,  and  Saint-Martin.  The  Supreme  Deity 
is  now  Brahma,  and  sacrifice  is  still  the  act  by  which 
one  comes  into  relation  with  heaven.  Widow-burning  is 
not  mentioned  in  Manu;  but  it  appears  in  the  Mahab- 
harata,  one  of  the  great  epics,  which  is  therefore  later. 

In  the  region  of  the  Sarasvati,  a  holy  river,  which  for¬ 
merly  emptied  into  the  Indus,  but  is  now  lost  in  a  desert, 
the  Aryan  race  of  India  was  transformed  from  nomads 
into  a  stable  community.*  There  they  received  their 
laws,  and  there  their  first  cities  were  erected.  There 
were  founded  the  Solar  and  Lunar  monarchies. 

The  Manu  of  the  Vedas  and  he  of  the  Brahmans  are 
very  different  persons.  The  first  is  called  in  the  Vedas 
the  father  of  mankind.  He  also  escapes  from  a  deluge  by 
building  a  ship,  which  he  is  advised  to  do  by  a  fish.  He 
preserves  the  fish,  which  grows  to  a  great  size,  and  when 
the  flood  comes  acts  as  a  tow-boat  to  drag  the  ship  of 
Manu  to  a  mountain.*!*  This  account  is  contained  in  a 
Brahmana. 

The  name  of  Manu  seems  afterward  to  have  been 
given  by  the  Brahmans  to  the  author  of  their  code.  Some 
extracts  from  this  very  interesting  volume  we  will  now 
give,  slightly  abridged,  from  Sir  William  Jones’s  transla¬ 
tion.;!;  From  the  first  book,  on  Creation  :  — 

“  The  universe  existed  in  darkness,  imperceptible,  unde- 
finable,  undiscoverable,  and  undiscovered;  as  if  immersed  in 
sleep.” 

“  Then  the  self-existing  power,  undiscovered  himself,  but 
making  the  world  discernible,  with  the  five  elements  and 
other  principles,  appeared  in  undiminished  glory,  dispelling 
the  gloom.” 

“  He,  whom  the  mind  alone  can  perceive,  whose  essence 
eludes  the  external  organs,  who  has  no  visible  parts,  who  ex¬ 
ists  from  eternity,  even  he,  the  soul  of  all  beings,  shone  forth 
in  person. 

*  See  Yivien  de  Saint-Martin,  Revue  Germanique,  July  16,  1862.  The 
Sarasvati  is  highly  praised  in  the  Rig- Veda.  Talboys  Wheeler,  II.  429. 

t  Max  Miiller,  Sanskrit  Lit.,  p.  425. 

X  Institutes  of  Hindu  Law,  or  the  Ordinances  of  Menu,  according  to 
the  Gloss  of  Calluca,  Calcutta.  1796,  §§  5,  6,  7,  8. 


102 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


“  He  having  willed  to  produce  various  beings  from  his  own 
divine  substance,  first  with  a  thought  created  the  waters,  and 
placed  in  them  a  productive  seed.” 

“  The  seed  became  an  egg  bright  as  gold,  blazing  like  the 
luminary  with  a  thousand  beams,  and  in  that  egg  he  was  born 
himself,  in  the  form  of  Brahma,  the  great  forefather  of  all 
spirits. 

“  The  waters  are  called  Nara,  because  they  were  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  Nara,  or  the  spirit  of  God ;  and  hence  they  were  his 
first  ayana,  or  place  of  motion ;  he  hence  is  named  Nara  yana, 
or  moving  on  the  waters. 

“  In  that  egg  the  great  power  sat  inactive  a  whole  year  of 
the  creator,  at  the  close  of  which,  by  his  thought  alone,  he 
caused  the  egg  to  divide  itself. 

“  And  from  its  two  divisions  he  framed  the  heaven  above 
and  the  earth  beneath ;  in  the  midst  he  placed  the  subtile 
ether,  the  eight  regions,  and  the  permanent  receptacle  of 
waters. 

“From  the  supreme  soul  he  drew  forth  mind,  existing  sub¬ 
stantially  though  unperceived  by  sense,  immaterial ;  and 
before  mind,  or  the  reasoning  power,  he  produced  conscious¬ 
ness,  the  internal  monitor,  the  ruler. 

“  And  before  them  both  he  produced  the  great  principle  of 
the  soul,  or  first  expansion  of  the  divine  idea ;  and  all  vital 
forms  endued  with  the  three  qualities  of  goodness,  passion, 
and  darkness,  and  the  five  perceptions  of  sense,  and  the  five 
organs  of  sensation. 

“  Thus,  having  at  once  pervaded  with  emanations  from  the 
Supreme  Spirit  the  minutest  portions  of  fixed  principles 
immensely  operative,  consciousness  and  the  five  perceptions, 
he  framed  all  creatures. 

“  Thence  proceed  the  great  elements,  endued  with  peculiar 
powers,  and  mind  with  operations  infinitely  subtile,  the  unper¬ 
ishable  cause  of  all  apparent  forms. 

“  This  universe,  therefore,  is  compacted  from  the  minute 
portions  of  those  seven  divine  and  active  principles,  the  great 
soul,  or  first  emanation,  consciousness,  and  five  perceptions ; 
a  mutable  universe  from  immutable  ideas. 

“  Of  created  things,  the  most  excellent  are  those  which  are 
animated ;  of  the  animated,  those  which  subsist  by  intelli¬ 
gence  ;  of  the  intelligent,  mankind ;  and  of  men,  the  sacer¬ 
dotal  class. 

“Of  priests,  those  eminent  in  learning;  of  the  learned, 


BRAHMANISM. 


103 


those  who  know  their  duty;  of  those  who  know  it,  such  as 
perform  it  virtuously;  and  of  the  virtuous,  those  who  seek 
beatitude  from  a  perfect  acquaintance  with  scriptural  doctrine. 

“  The  very  birth  of  Brahmans  is  a  constant  incarnation  of 
Dharma,  God  of  justice ;  for  the  Brahman  is  born  to  promote 
justice,  and  to  procure  ultimate  happiness. 

“  When  a  Brahman  springs  to  light,  he  is  born  above  the 
world,  the  chief  of  all  creatures,  assigned  to  guard  the  treasury 
of  duties,  religious  and  civil. 

“The  Brahman  who  studies  this  book,  having  performed 
sacred  rites,  is  perpetually  free  from  offence  in  thought,  in 
word  and  in  deed. 

“  He  confers  purity  on  his  living  family,  on  his  ancestors, 
and  on  his  descendants  as  far  as  the  seventh  person,  and 
he  alone  deserves  to  possess  this  whole  earth.” 

The  following  passages  are  from  Book  II.,  “  On  Educa¬ 
tion  and  the  Priesthood  ”  :  — 

“Self-love  is  no  laudable  motive,  yet  an  exemption  from 
self-love  is  not  to  be  found  in  this  world  :  on  self-love  is 
grounded  the  study  of  Scripture,  and  the  practice  of  actions 
recommended  in  it. 

“  Eager  desire  to  act  has  its  root  in  expectation  of  some  ad¬ 
vantage  ;  and  with  such  expectation  are  sacrifices  performed ; 
the  rules  of  religious  austerity  and  abstinence  from  sins  are  all 
known  to  arise  from  hope  of  remuneration. 

“Not  a  single  act  here  below  appears  ever  to  be  done  by  a 
man  free  from  self-love ;  whatever  he  perform,  it  is  wrought 
from  his  desire  of  a  reward. 

“  He,  indeed,  who  should  persist  in  discharging  these  duties 
without  any  view  to  their  fruit,  would  attain  hereafter  the 
state  of  the  immortals,  and  even  in  this  life  would  enjoy 
all  the  virtuous  gratifications  that  his  fancy  could  suggest. 

“  The  most  excellent  of  the  three  classes,  being  girt  with  the 
sacrificial  thread,  must  ask  food  with  the  respectful  word 
Dhavati  at  the  beginning  of  the  phrase ;  those  of  the  second 
class  with  that  word  in  the  middle ;  and  those  of  the  third 
with  that  word  at  the  end. 

“  Let  him  first  beg  food  of  his  mother,  or  of  his  sister,  or  of 
his  mother’s  whole  sister ;  then  of  some  other  female  who  will 
not  disgrace  him. 

“  Having  collected  as  much  of  the  desired  food  as  he  has 
occasion  for,  and  having  presented  it  without  guile  to  his  pre- 


104 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


ceptor,  let  him  eat  some  of  it,  being  duly  purified,  with  his 
face  to  the  east. 

“  If  he  seek  long  life,  he  should  eat  with  his  face  to  the 
east ;  if  prosperity,  to  the  west ;  if  truth  and  its  reward,  to  the 
north. 

“  When  the  student  is  going  to  read  the  Yeda  he  must  per¬ 
form  an  ablution,  as  the  law  ordains,  with  his  face  to  the  north ; 
and  having  paid  scriptural  homage,  he  must  receive  instruc¬ 
tion,  wearing  a  clean  vest,  his  members  being  duly  composed. 

“  A  Brahman  beginning  and  ending  a  lecture  on  the  Veda 
must  always  pronounce  to  himself  the  syllable  om  ;  for  unless 
the  syllable  om  precede,  his  learning  will  slip  away  from  him  j 
and  unless  it  follow,  nothing  will  be  long  retained. 

“  A  priest  who  shall  know  the  Veda,  and  shall  pronounce  to 
himself,  both  morning  and  evening,  that  syllable,  and  that 
holy  text  preceded  by  the  three  wrords,  shall  attain  the  sanc¬ 
tity  which  the  Veda  confers. 

“  And  a  twice-born  man,  wrho  shall  a  thousand  times  repeat 
those  three  (or  om,  the  vyahritis,  and  the  gayatri)  apart  from 
the  multitude,  shall  be  released  in  a  month  even  from  a  great 
offence,  as  a  snake  from  his  slough. 

“  The  three  great  immutable  words,  preceded  by  the  tri¬ 
literal  syllable,  and  followed  by  the  gayatri,  which  consists  of 
three  measures,  must  be  considered  as  the  mouth,  or  principal 
part  of  the  Veda. 

“  The  triliteral  monosyllable  is  an  emblem  of  the  Supreme  ; 
the  suppressions  of  breath,  with  a  mind  fixed  on  God,  are  the 
highest  devotion ;  but  nothing  is  more  exalted  than  the  gay¬ 
atri  ;  a  declaration  of  truth  is  more  excellent  than  silence. 

“All  rites  ordained  in  the  Veda,  oblations  to  fire,  and 
solemn  sacrifices  pass  away ;  but  that  which  passes  not  away 
is  declared  to  be  the  syllable  om,  thence  called  acshara ;  since 
it  is  a  symbol  of  God,  the  Lord  of  created  beings. 

“  The  act  of  repeating  his  Holy  Name  is  ten  times  better 
than  the  appointed  sacrifice  ;  an  hundred  times  better  when  it 
is  heard  by  no  man ;  and  a  thousand  times  better  when  it  is 
purely  mental. 

“  To  a  man  contaminated  by  sensuality,  neither  the  Vedas, 
nor  liberality,  nor  sacrifices,  nor  strict  observances,  nor  pious 
austerities,  ever  procure  felicity. 

“  As  he  who  digs  deep  with  a  spade  comes  to  a  spring  of 
water,  so  the  student,  who  humbly  serves  his  teacher,  attains 
the  knowledge  which  lies  deep  in  his  teacher’s  mind. 


BRAHMANISM. 


105 


“  If  the  sun  should  rise  and  set,  while  he  sleeps  through 
sensual  indulgence,  and  knows  it  not,  he  must  fast  a  whole 
day  repeating  the  gayatri. 

“  Let  him  adore  God  both  at  sunrise  and  at  sunset,  as  the 
law  ordains,  having  made  his  ablution,  and  keeping  his  organs 
controlled ;  and  with  fixed  attention  let  him  repeat  the  text, 
wrhich  he  ought  to  repeat  in  a  place  'free  from  impurity. 

“  The  twice-born  man  who  shall  thus  without  intermission 
have  passed  the  time  of  his  studentship  shall  ascend  after 
death  to  the  most  exalted  of  regions,  and  no  more  again  spring 
to  birth  in  this  lower  world. 

The  following  passages  are  from  Book  IV.,  “  On  Private 
Morals  ”  :  — 

“  Let  a  Brahman,  having  dwelt  with  a  preceptor  during  the 
first  quarter  of  a  man’s  life,  pass  the  second  quarter  of  human 
life  in  his  own  house,  when  he  has  contracted  a  legal  marriage. 

“  He  must  live  with  no  injury,  or  with  the  least  possible  in¬ 
jury,  to  animated  beings,  by  pursuing  those  means  of  gaining 
subsistence,  which  are  strictly  prescribed  by  law,  except  in 
times  of  distress. 

“  Let  him  say  what  is  true,  but  let  him  say  what  is  pleas¬ 
ing  ;  let  him  speak  no  disagreeable  truth,  nor  let  him  speak 
agreeable  falsehood  ;  this  is  a  primeval  rule. 

“  Let  him  say  ‘  well  and  good,’  or  let  him  say  ‘  well  ’  only ; 
but  let  him  not  maintain  fruitless  enmity  and  altercation  with 
any  man. 

“  All  that  depends  on  another  gives  pain  ;  and  all  that  de¬ 
pends  on  himself  gives  pleasure ;  let  him  know  this  to  be  in 
few  words  the  definition  of  pleasure  and  pain. 

“  And  for  whatever  purpose  a  man  bestows  a  gift,  for  a  sim¬ 
ilar  purpose  he  shall  receive,  with  due  honor,  a  similar  reward. 

“  Both  he  who  respectfully  bestows  a  present,  and  he  who 
respectfully  accepts  it,  shall  go  to  a  seat  of  bliss ;  but,  if  they 
act  otherwise,  to  a  region  of  horror. 

“  Let  not  a  man  be  proud  of  his  rigorous  devotion  ;  let  him 
not,  having  sacrificed,  utter  a  falsehood ;  let  him  not,  though 
injured,  insult  a  priest ;  having  made  a  donation,  let  him  never 
proclaim  it. 

“  By  falsehood  the  sacrifice  becomes  vain ;  by  pride  the 
merit  of  devotion  is  lost ;  by  insulting  priests  life  is  dimin¬ 
ished  ;  and  by  proclaiming  a  largess  its  fruit  is  destroyed. 

“  For  in  his  passage  to  the  next  world.,  neither  his  father, 


106 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS- 


nor  Ins  mother,  nor  his  wife,  nor  his  son,  nor  his  kinsmen  will 
remain  his  company  ;  his  virtue  alone  will  adhere  to  him. 

“  Single  is  each  man  born ;  single  he  dies ;  single  he  re¬ 
ceives  the  reward  of  his  good,  and  single  the  punishment  of 
his  evil  deeds. 

From  Book  V.,  “  On  Diet  ”  :  — 

“  The  twice-born  man  who  has  intentionally  eaten  a  mush¬ 
room,  the  flesh  of  a  tame  hog,  or  a  town  cock,  a  leek,  or  an 
onion,  or  garlic,  is  degraded  immediately. 

“  But  having  undesignedly  tasted  either  of  those  six  things, 
he  must  perform  the  penance  santapana,  or  the  chandrayana, 
which  anchorites  practise ;  for  other  things  he  must  fast  a  whole 
day. 

“  One  of  those  harsh  penances  called  prajapatya  the  twice- 
born  man  must  perform  annually,  to  purify  him  from  the  un¬ 
known  taint  of  illicit  food ;  but  he  must  do  particular  penance 
for  such  food  intentionally  eaten. 

“  He  who  injures  no  animated  creature  shall  attain  without 
hardship  whatever  he  thinks  of,  whatever  he  strives  for,  what¬ 
ever  he  fixes  his  mind  on. 

“  Flesh  meat  cannot  be  procured  without  injury  to  animals, 
and  the  slaughter  of  animals  obstructs  the  path  to  beatitude  ; 
from  flesh  meat,  therefore,  let  man  abstain. 

“  Attentively  considering  the  formation  of  bodies,  and  the 
death  or  confinement  of  embodied  spirits,  let  him  abstain  from 
eating  flesh  meat  of  any  kind. 

“  Not  a  mortal  exists  more  sinful  than  he  who,  without  an 
oblation  to  the  manes  or  the  gods,  desires  to  enlarge  his  own 
flesh  with  the  flesh  of  another  creature. 

“  By  subsisting  on  pure  fruit  and  on  roots,  and  by  eating 
such  grains  as  are  eaten  by  hermits,  a  man  reaps  not  so  high  a 
reward  as  by  carefully  abstaining  from  animal  food. 

“  In  lawfully  tasting  meat,  in  drinking  fermented  liquor,  in 
caressing  women,  there  is  no  turpitude ;  for  to  such  enjoy¬ 
ments  men  are  naturally  prone,  but  a  virtuous  abstinence  from 
them  produces  a  signal  compensation. 

“Sacred  learning,  austere  devotion,  fire,  holy  aliment,  earth, 
the  mind,  water,  smearing  with  cow-dung,  air,  prescribed  acts 
of  religion,  the  sun,  and  time  are  purifiers  of  embodied  spirits. 

“  But  of  all  pure  things  purity  in  acquiring  wealth  is  pro¬ 
nounced  the  most  excellent ;  since  he  who  gains  wealth  with 
clean  hands  is  truly  pure ;  not  he  who  is  purified  merely  with 
earth  and  water. 


BRAHMANISM. 


107 


“By  forgiveness  of  injuries,  the  learned  are  purified;  by 
liberality,  those  who  have  neglected  their  duty;  by  pious 
meditation,  those  who  have  secret  faults ;  by  devout  austerity, 
those  who  best  know  the  Veda. 

“Bodies  are  cleansed  by  water;  the  mind  is  purified  by 
truth ;  the  vital  spirit,  by  theology  and  devotion ;  the  under¬ 
standing,  by  clear  knowledge. 

“  No  sacrifice  is  allowed  to  women  apart  from  their  hus¬ 
bands,  no  religious  rite,  no  fasting ;  as  far  only  as  a  wife  honors 
her  lord,  so  far  she  is  exalted  in  heaven. 

“  A  faithful  wife,  who  wishes  to  attain  in  heaven  the  man¬ 
sion  of  her  husband,  must  do  nothing  unkind  to  him,  be  he 
living  or  dead. 

“  Let  her  emaciate  her  body  by  living  voluntarily  on  pure 
flowers,  roots,  and  fruit ;  but  let  her  not,  when  her  lord  is  de¬ 
ceased,  even  pronounce  the  name  of  another  man. 

“Let  her  continue  till  death  forgiving  all  injuries,  perform¬ 
ing  harsh  duties,  avoiding  every  sensual  pleasure,  and  cheer¬ 
fully  practising  the  incomparable  rules  of  virtue,  which  have 
been  followed  by  such  women  as  were  devoted  to  one  only 
husband.” 

The  Sixth  Book  of  the  Laws  of  Mann  relates  to  devo¬ 
tion.  It  seems  that  the  Brahmans  were  in  the  habit  of 
becoming  ascetics,  or,  as  the  Boman  Catholics  would 
say,  entering  Religion.  A  Brahman,  or  twice-born  man, 
who  wishes  to  become  an  ascetic,  must  abandon  his 
home  and  family,  and  go  to  live  in  the  forest.  His  food 
must  be  roots  and  fruit,  his  clothing  a  bark  garment  or  a 
skin,  he  must  bathe  morning  and  evening,  and  suffer  his 
hair  to  grow.  He  must  spend  his  time  in  reading  the 
Veda,  with  a  mind  intent  on  the  Supreme  Being,  “a 
perpetual  giver  but  no  receiver  of  gifts ;  with  tender 
affection  for  all  animated  bodies.”  He  is  to  perform 
various  sacrifices  with  offerings  of  fruits  and  flowers, 
practise  austerities  by  exposing  himself  to  heat  and  cold, 
and  “  for  the  purpose  of  uniting  his  soul  with  the  Divine 
Spirit  he  must  study  the  Upanishads.” 

“A  Brahman,  having  shuffled  off  his  body  by  these  modes, 
which  great  sages  practise,  and  becoming  void  of  sorrow  and 
fear,  is  exalted  into  the  divine  essence.” 


108 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


“  Let  him  not  wish  for  death.  Let  him  not  wish  for  life. 
Let  him  expect  his  appointed  time,  as  the  hired  servant  ex¬ 
pects  his  wages.” 

“  Meditating  on  the  Supreme  Spirit,  without  any  earthly  de¬ 
sire,  with  no  companion  but  his  own  soul,  let  him  live  in  this 
world  seeking  the  bliss  of  the  next.” 

The  anchorite  is  to  beg  food,  but  only  once  a  day ;  if  it 
is  not  given  to  him,  he  must  not  be  sorrowful,  and  if  he 
receives  it  he  must  not  be  glad  ;  he  is  to  meditate  on  the 
“  subtle  indivisible  essence  of  the  Supreme  Being,”  he  is 
to  be  careful  not  to  destroy  the  life  of  the  smallest  insect, 
and  he  must  make  atonement  for  the  death  of  those 
which  he  has  ignorantly  destroyed  by  making  six  sup¬ 
pressions  of  his  breath,  repeating  at  the  same  time  the 
triliteral  syllable  A  U  M.  He  will  thus  at  last  become 
united  with  the  Eternal  Spirit,  and  his  good  deeds  will  be 
inherited  by  those  who  love  him,  and  his  evil  deeds  by 
those  who  hate  him. 

The  Seventh  Book  relates  to  the  duties  of  rulers.  One 
of  these  is  to  reward  the  good  and  punish  the  wicked. 
The  genius  of  punishment  is  a  son  of  Brahma,  and  has 
a  body  of  pure  light.  Punishment  is  an  active  ruler, 
governs  all  mankind,  dispenses  laws,  preserves  the  race, 
and  is  the  perfection  of  justice.  Without  it  all  classes 
would  become  corrupt,  all  barriers  would  fall,  and  there 
would  be  total  confusion.  Kings  are  to  respect  the  Brah¬ 
mans,  must  shun  vices,  must  select  good  counsellors  and 
brave  soldiers.  A  King  must  be  a  father  to  his  people. 
When  he  goes  to  war  he  must  observe  the  rules  of  honor¬ 
able  warfare,  must  not  use  poisoned  arrows,  strike  a  fallen 
enemy,  nor  one  who  sues  for  life,  nor  one  without  arms, 
nor  one  who  surrenders.  He  is  not  to  take  too  little 
revenue,  and  so  “  cut  up  his  own  root  ” ;  nor  too  much, 
and  so  “  cut  up  the  root  of  others  ” ;  he  is  to  be  severe 
when  it  is  necessary,  and  mild  when  it  is  necessary. 

The  Eighth  Book  relates  to  civil  and  criminal  law. 
The  Kaja  is  to  hold  his  court  every  day,  assisted  by  his 
Brahmans,  and  decide  causes  concerning  debts  and  loans, 
sales,  wages,  contracts,  boundaries,  slander,  assaults,  lar¬ 
ceny,  robbery,  and  other  crimes.  The  Raja,  “  understand- 


BRAHMANISM. 


109 


ing  what  is  expedient  or  inexpedient,  but  considering 
only  what  is  law  or  not  law,”  should  examine  all  disputes. 
He  must  protect  unprotected  women,  restore  property  to 
its  rightful  owner,  not  encourage  litigation,  and  decide 
according  to  the  rules  of  law.  These  rules  correspond 
very  nearly  to  our  law  of  evidence.  Witnesses  are 
warned  to  speak  the  truth  in  all  cases  by  the  considera¬ 
tion  that,  though  they  may  think  that  none  see  them,  the 
gods  distinctly  see  them  and  also  the  spirit  in  their  own 
breasts. 

“  The  soul  itself  is  its  own  witness,  the  soul  itself  is  its  own 
refuge ;  offend  not  thy  conscious  soul,  the  supreme  internal 
witness  of  men.” 

“  The  fruit  of  every  virtuous  act  which  thou  hast  done,  0 
.good  man,  since  thy  birth,  shall  depart  from  thee  to  the  dogs, 
if  thou  deviate  from  the  truth.” 

“  0  friend  to  virtue,  the  Supreme  Spirit,  which  is  the  same 
with  thyself,  resides  in  thy  bosom  perpetually,  and  is  an  all¬ 
knowing  inspector  of  thy  goodness  or  wickedness.” 

The  law  then  proceeds  to  describe  the  punishments  which 
the  gods  would  inflict  upon  false  witnesses ;  but,  curiously 
enough,  allows  false  witness  to  be  given,  from  a  benevolent 
motive,  in  order  to  save  an  innocent  man  from  a  tyrant. 
This  is  called  “the  venial  sin  of  benevolent  falsehood.” 
The  book  then  proceeds  to  describe  weights  and  meas¬ 
ures,  and  the  rate  of  usury,  which  is  put  down  as  five  per 
cent.  It  forbids  compound  interest.  The  law  of  deposits 
occupies  a  large  space,  as  in  all  Eastern  countries,  where 
investments  are  difficult.  A  good  deal  is  said  about  the 
wages  of  servants,  especially  of  those  hired  to  keep  cattle, 
and  their  responsibilities.  The  law  of  slander  is  carefully 
laid  down.  Crimes  of  violence  are  also  minutely  described, 
and  here  the  Lex  Talionis  comes  in.  If  a  man  strikes  a 
human  being  or  an  animal  so  as  to  inflict  much  pain, 
he  shall  be  struck  himself  in  the  same  way.  A  man 
is  allowed  to  correct  with  a  small  stick  his  wife,  son,  or 
servant,  but  not  on  the  head  or  any  noble  part  of  the 
body.  The  Brahmans,  however,  are  protected  by  special 
laws. 


110 


TEX  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


“  Never  shall  the  king  flay  a  Brahman,  though  convicted  of 
all  possible  crimes  :  let  him  banish  the  offender  from  his 
realm,  but  with  all  his  property  secure  and  his  body  unhurt.” 

“No  greater  crime  is  known  on  earth  than  flaying  a  Brah¬ 
man  ;  and  the  king,  therefore,  must  not  even  form  in  his  mind 
the  idea  of  killing  a  priest.” 

The  Ninth  Book  relates  to  women,  to  families,  and  to 
the  law  of  castes.  It  states  that  women  must  be  kept  in 
a  state  of  dependence. 

“  Their  fathers  protect  them  in  childhood;  their  husbands 
protect  them  in  youth ;  their  sons  protect  them  in  age.  A 
woman  is  never  fit  for  independence.” 

It  is  the  duty  of  men  to  watch  and  guard  women,  and 
very  unfavorable  opinions  are  expressed  concerning  the 
female  character. 

“  Women  have  no  business  with  the  text  of  the  Veda  ;  this 
is  fully  settled  ;  therefore  having  no  knowledge  of  expiatory 
texts,  sinful  women  must  be  as  foul  as  falsehood  itself.  This 
is  a  fixed  law.” 

It  is,  however,  stated  that  good  women  become  like 
goddesses,  and  shall  be  joined  with  their  husbands  in 
heaven ;  and  that  a  man  is  only  perfect  when  he  consists 
of  three  persons  united,  —  his  wife,  himself,  and  his  son. 
Manu  also  attributes  to  ancient  Brahmans  a  maxim  almost 
verbally  the  same  as  that  of  the  Bible,  namely,  “  The  hus¬ 
band  is  even  one  person  with  his  wife.”  Nothing  is  said 
by  Manu  concerning  the  cremation  of  widows,  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  minute  directions  are  given  for  the  behavior 
of  widows  during  their  life.  Directions  are  also  given 
concerning  the  marriage  of  daughters  and  sons  and  their 
inheritance  of  property.  The  rest  of  the  book  is  devoted 
to  a  further  description  of  crimes  and  punishments. 

The  Tenth  Book  relates  to  the  mixed  classes  and  times 
of  distress. 

The  Eleventh  Book  relates  to  penance  and  expiation. 
In  this  book  is  mentioned  the  remarkable  rite  which  con¬ 
sists  in  drinking  the  fermented  juice  of  the  moon-plant 
(or  acid  asclepias)  with  religious  ceremonies.  This  Hindu 
sacrament  began  in  the  Vedic  age,  and  the  Sanhita  of  the 


BRAHMANISM. 


Ill 


Sama-Veda  consists  of  hymns  to  be  sung  at  the  moon- 
plant  sacrifice.*  This  ceremony  is  still  practised  occa¬ 
sionally  in  India,  and  Dr.  Haug  has  tasted  this  sacred 
beverage,  which  he  describes  as  astringent,  bitter,  intoxi¬ 
cating,  and  very  disagreeable.*)*  It  is  stated  by  Manu 
that  no  one  has  a  right  to  drink  this  sacred  juice  who 
does  not  properly  provide  for  his  own  household.  He 
encourages  sacrifices  by  declaring  that  they  are  highly 
meritorious  and  will  expiate  sin.  Involuntary  sins  re¬ 
quire  a  much  lighter  penance  than  those  committed  with 
knowledge.  Crimes  committed  by  Brahmans  require  a 
less  severe  penance  than  those  performed  by  others ;  while 
those  committed  against  Brahmans  involve  a  much  deeper 
guilt  and  require  severer  penance.  The  law  declares  :  — 

“  From  his  high  birth  alone  a  Brahman  is  an  object  of 
•veneration,  even  to  deities,  and  his  declarations  are  decisive 
evidence.” 

“A  Brahman,  who  has  performed  an  expiation  with  his 
whole  mind  fixed  on  God,  purifies  his  soul.” 

Drinking  intoxicating  liquor  (except  in  the  Soma  sacri¬ 
fice)  is  strictly  prohibited,  and  it  is  even  declared  that  a 
Brahman  who  tastes  intoxicating  liquor  sinks  to  the  low 
caste  of  a  Sudra.  If  a  Brahman  who  has  tasted  the  Soma 
juice  even  smells  the  breath  of  a  man  who  has  been 
drinking  spirits,  he  must  do  penance  by  repeating  the 
Gayatri,  suppressing  his  breath,  and  eating  clarified  butter. 
Next  to  Brahmans,  cows  were  the  objects  of  reverence, 
probably  because,  in  the  earliest  times,  the  Aryan  race,  as 
nomads,  depended  on  this  animal  for  food.  He  who  kills 
a  cow  must  perform  very  severe  penances,  among  which 
are  these :  — 

“  All  day  he  must  wait  on  a  herd  of  cows  and  stand  quaff¬ 
ing  the  dust  raised  by  their  hoofs ;  at  night,  having  servilely 
attended  them,  he  must  sit  near  and  guard  them.” 

“  Free  from  passion,  he  must  stand  while  they  stand,  follow 
when  they  move,  and  lie  down  near  them  when  they  lie 
down.” 

*  See  translation  of  the  Sanhita  of  the  Sama-Veda,  by  the  Rev.  J. 
Stevenson.  London,  1842. 

+  Max  Muller,  “Chips,”  Vol.  I.  p.  107. 


112 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


“  By  thus  waiting  on  a  herd  for  three  months,  he  who  has 
killed  a  cow  atones  for  his  guilt.” 

Bor  such  offences  as  cutting  down  fruit-trees  or  grasses, 
or  killing  insects,  or  injuring  sentient  creatures,  the  pen¬ 
ance  is  to  repeat  so  many  texts  of  the  Yeda,  to  eat  clari¬ 
fied  butter,  or  to  stop  the  breath.  A  low-born  man  wTho 
treats  a  Brahman  disrespectfully,  or  who  even  overcomes 
him  in  argument,  must  fast  all  day  and  fall  prostrate  before 
him.  He  who  strikes  a  Brahman  shall  remain  in  hell  a 
thousand  years.  Great,  however,  is  the  power  of  sincere 
devotion.  By  repentance,  open  confession,  reading  the 
Scripture,  almsgiving,  and  reformation,  one  is  released  from 
guilt.  Devotion,  it  is  said,  is  equal  to  the  performance  of 
all  duties ;  and  even  the  souls  of  worms  and  insects  and 
vegetables  attain  heaven  by  the  power  of  devotion.  But 
especially  great  is  the  sanctifying  influence  of  the  Yedas. 
He  who  can  repeat  the  whole  of  the  Big-Veda  would  be 
free  from  guilt,  even  if  he  had  killed  the  inhabitants  of 
the  three  worlds. 

The  last  book  of  Manu  is  on  transmigration  and  final 
beatitude.  The  principle  is  here  laid  down  that  every 
human  action,  word,  and  thought  bears  its  appropriate 
fruit,  good  or  evil.  Out  of  the  heart  proceed  three  sins 
of  thought,  four  sins  of  the  tongue,  and  three  of  the  body, 
namely,  covetous,  disobedient,  and  atheistic  thoughts ;  scur¬ 
rilous,  false,  frivolous,  and  unkind  words  ;  and  actions  of 
theft,  bodily  injury,  and  licentiousness.  He  who  controls 
his  thoughts,  words,  and  actions  is  called  a  triple  com¬ 
mander.  There  are  three  qualities  of  the  soul,  giving  it  a 
tendency  to  goodness,  to  passion,  and  to  darkness.  The  first 
leads  to  knowledge,  the  second  to  desire,  the  third  to  sen¬ 
suality.  To  the  first  belong  study  of  Scripture,  devotion, 
purity,  self-command,  and  obedience.  From  the  second  pro¬ 
ceed  hypocritical  actions,  anxiety,  disobedience,  and  self-in¬ 
dulgence.  The  third  produces  avarice,  atheism,  indolence, 
and  every  act  which  a  man  is  ashamed  of  doing.  The  ob¬ 
ject  of  the  first  quality  is  virtue ;  of  the  second,  worldly 
success ;  of  the  third,  pleasure.  The  souls  in  which  the 
first  quality  is  supreme  rise  after  death  to  the  condition 
of  deities  ;  those  in  whom  the  second  rules  pass  into  the 


BRAHMANISM. 


113 


bodies  of  other  men ;  while  those  under  the  dominion  of 
the  third  become  beasts  and  vegetables.  Mann  proceeds 
to  expound,  in  great  detail,  this  law  of  transmigration. 
For  great  sins  one  is  condemned  to  pass  a  great  many 
times  into  the  bodies  of  dogs,  insects,  spiders,  snakes,  or 
grasses.  The  change  has  relation  to  the  crime  :  thus, 
he  who  steals  grain  shall  be  born  a  rat ;  he  who  steals 
meat,  a  vulture  ;  those  who  indulge  in  forbidden  pleasures 
of  the  senses  shall  have  their  senses  made  acute  to  endure 
intense  pain. 

The  highest  of  all  virtues  is  disinterested  goodness, 
performed  from  the  love  of  God,  and  based  on  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  Yeda.  A  religious  action,  performed  from 
hope  of  reward  in  this  world  or  the  next,  will  give 
one  a  place  in  the  lowest  heaven.  But  he  who  performs 
good  actions  without  hope  of  reward,  “  perceiving  the 
supreme  soul  in  all  beings,  and  all  beings  in  the  su¬ 
preme  soul,  fixing  his  mind  on  God,  approaches  the 
divine  nature.” 

“  Let  every  Brahman,  with  fixed  attention,  consider  all  na¬ 
ture  as  existing  in  the  Divine  Spirit ;  all  worlds  as  seated  in 
him ;  he  alone  as  the  whole  assemblage  of  gods  j  and  he  the 
author  of  all  human  actions.” 

“  Let  him  consider  the  supreme  omnipresent  intelligence 
as  the  sovereign  lord  of  the  universe,  by  whom  alone  it  ex¬ 
ists,  an  incomprehensible  spirit ;  pervading  all  beings  in  five 
elemental  forms,  and  causing  them  to  pass  through  birth, 
growth,  and  decay,  and  so  to  revolve  like  the  wheels  of  a 
car.” 

“  Thus  the  man  who  perceives  in  his  own  soul  the  supreme 
soul  present  in  all  creatures,  acquires  equanimity  toward  them 
all,  and  shall  be  absolved  at  last  in  the  highest  essence.,,  even 
that  of  the  Almighty  himself.” 

We  have  given  these  copious  extracts  from  the  Brah- 
manic  law,  because  this  code  is  so  ancient  and  authentic, 
and  contains  the  bright  consummate  fiower  of  the  system, 
before  decay  began  to  come. 


114 


TEN  GKEAT  EELIGIONS. 


§  6.  The  Three  Hindoo  Systems  of  Philosophy , — SdnJchya, 

Vedanta,  and  Nyasa. 

Duncker  says  *  that  the  Indian  systems  of  philosophy 
were  produced  in  the  sixth  or  seventh  century  before 
Christ.  As  the  system  of  Buddha  implies  the  existence 
of  the  Sankhya  philosophy,  the  latter  must  have  preceded 
Buddhism.-)* * §  Moreover,  Kapila  and  his  two  principles  are 
distinctly  mentioned  in  the  Laws  of  Manu,J  and  in  the 
later  Upanishads.§  This  brings  it  to  the  Brahmana  period 
of  Max  Muller,  B.  c.  600  to  b.  c.  800,  and  probably  still 
earlier.  Dr.  AVeber  at  one  time  was  of  the  opinion  that 
Kapila  and  Buddha  were  the  same  person,  but  afterward 
retracted  this  opinion.  ||  Colebrooke  says  that  Kapila  is 
mentioned  in  the  Veda  itself,  but  intimates  that  this  is 
probably  another  sage  of  the  same  name.1T  The  sage  was 
even  considered  to  be  an  incarnation  of  Vischnu,  or  of 
Agni.  The  Vedanta  philosophy  is  also  said  by  Lassen  to 
be  mentioned  in  the  Laws  of  Manu.**  This  system  is 
founded  on  the  Upanishads,  and  would  seem  to  be  later 
than  that  of  Kapila,  since  it  criticises  his  system,  and 
devotes  much  space  to  its  confutation.*)*-)*  But  Duncker 
regards  it  as  the  oldest,  and  already  beginning  in  the 
Upanishads  of  the  Vedas.|.|  As  the  oldest  works  now  ex¬ 
tant  in  both  systems  are  later  than  their  origin,  this  ques¬ 
tion  of  date  can  only  be  determined  from  their  contents. 
That  which  logically  precedes  the  other  must  be  chrono¬ 
logically  the  oldest. 

The  Sankhya  system  of  Kapila  is  contained  in  many 
works,  but  notably  in  the  Karika,  or  Sankhya-Karika,  by 
Iswara  Krishna.  This  consists  in  eighty-two  memorial 

*  Geschichte  der  Arier,  Buch  Y.  §  8. 

+  Lassen,  I.  830. 

X  Laws  of  Manu  (XIT.  50)  speaks  of  “kthe  two  principles  of  nature  in 
the  philosophy  of  Kapila.” 

§  Duncker,  as  above. 

||  Muller,  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature,  p.  102. 

IF  Colebrooke,  Miscellaneous  Essays,  I.  349. 

**  Lassen,  I.  834. 

++  Colebrooke,  I.  350,  352. 

Duncker,  I.  204  (third  edition,  1867). 


BRAHMANISM. 


115 


verses,  with  a  commentary  * * * §  The  Yedanta  is  contained  in 
the  Sutras,  the  Upanishads,  and  especially  the  Brahma- 
Sutra  attributed  to  Vyasa.*f*  The  ISTyaya  is  to  be  found  in 
the  Sutras  of  Gotama  and  Canade.^ 

These  three  systems  of  Hindoo  philosophy,  the  Sankhya, 
the  ISTyaya,  and  the  Yedanta,  reach  far  back  into  a 
misty  twilight,  which  leaves  it  doubtful  when  they  began 
or  who  were  their  real  authors.  In  some  points  they 
agree,  in  others  they  are  widely  opposed.  They  all  agree 
in  having  for  their  object  deliverance  from  the  evils  of 
time,  change,  sorrow,  into  an  eternal  rest  and  peace. 
Their  aim  is,  therefore,  not  merely  speculative,  but  prac¬ 
tical.  All  agree  in  considering  existence  to  be  an  evil, 
understanding  by  existence  a  life  in  time  and  space.  All 
are  idealists,  to  whom  the  world  of  sense  and  time  is  a 
delusion  and  snare,  and  who  regard  the  Idea  as  the  only 
substance.  All  agree  in  accepting  the  fact  of  transmi¬ 
gration,  the  cessation  of  which  brings  final  deliverance. 
All  consider  that  the  means  of  this  deliverance  is  to  be 
found  in  knowledge,  in  a  perfect  knowledge  of  reality 
as  opposed  to  appearance.  And  all  are  held  by  Brah¬ 
mans,  who  consider  themselves  orthodox,  who  honor  the 
Yedas  above  all  other  books,  pay  complete  respect  to  the 
Hinduism  of  the  day,  perform  the  daily  ceremonies,  and 
observe  the  usual  caste  rules.§  The  systems  of  philos¬ 
ophy  supplement  the  religious  worship,  but  are  not  in¬ 
tended  to  destroy  it.  The  Yedantists  hold  that  while  in 
truth  there  is  but  one  God,  the  various  forms  of  worship 
in  the  Yedas,  of  Indra,  Agni,  the  Maruts,  etc.,  were  all  in¬ 
tended  for  those  who  could  not  rise  to  this  sublime  mono¬ 
theism.  Those  who  believe  in  the  Sankhya  maintain  that 
though  it  wholly  omits  God,  and  is  called  “  the  system 
without  a  God,”  it  merely  omits,  but  does  not  deny,  the 
Divine  existence.  || 

*  The  Sankhya-Karika,  translated  by  Colebrooke.  Oxford,  1837. 

t  Essay  on  the  Yedanta,  by  Chnnder  Dutt.  Calcutta,  1854. 

J  Colebrooke,  I.  262. 

§  The  Religious  Aspects  of  Hindu  Philosophy  :  A  Prize  Essay,  by 
Joseph  Mullens,  p.  43.  London,  1860.  See  also  Dialogues  on  the  Hindu 
Philosophy,  by  Rev.  K.  M.  Banerjea.  London,  1861. 

||  Mullens,  p.  44. 


116 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Each  of  these  philosophies  has  a  speculative  and  a  prac¬ 
tical  side.  The  speculative  problem  is,  How  did  the 
universe  come  ?  The  practical  problem  is,  How  shall 
man  be  delivered  from  evil  ? 

In  answering  the  first  question,  the  Vedanta,  or  Mi- 
mansa  doctrine,  proceeds  from  a  single  eternal  and  uncre^ 
ated  Principle ;  declaring  that  there  is  only  one  being 
in  the  universe,  God  or  Bralim,  and  that  all  else  is  Maya, 
or  illusion.  The  Sankhya  accepts  two  eternal  and  un¬ 
created  substances,  Soul  and  Nature.  The  Nyaya  assumes 
three  eternal  and  uncreated  substances,  —  Atoms,  Souls, 
and  God. 

The  solution  of  the  second  problem  is  the  same  in  all 
three  systems.  It  is  by  knowledge  that  the  soul  is  eman¬ 
cipated  from  body  or  matter  or  nature.  Worship  is  in¬ 
adequate,  though  not  to  be  despised.  Action  is  injurious 
rather  than  beneficial,  for  it  implies  desire.  Only  knowl¬ 
edge  can  lead  to  entire  rest  and  peace. 

According  to  all  three  systems,  the  transmigration  of 
the  soul  through  different  bodies  is  an  evil  resulting  from 
desire.  As  long  as  the  soul  wishes  anything,  it  will  con¬ 
tinue  to  migrate  and  to  suffer.  When  it  gathers  itself  up 
into  calm  insight,  it  ceases  to  wander  and  finds  repose. 

The  Vedanta  or  Mimansa  is  supposed  to  be  referred  to 
in  Manu.*  Mimansa  means  “  searching.”  In  its  logical 
forms  it  adopts  the  method  so  common  among  the  scho¬ 
lastics,  in  first  stating  the  question,  then  giving  the 
objection,  after  that  the  reply  to  the  objection,  and 
lastly  the  conclusion.  The  first  part  of  the  Mimansa  re¬ 
lates  to  worship  and  the  ceremonies  and  ritual  of  the 
Veda.  The  second  part  teaches  the  doctrine  of  Brahma. 
Brahma  is  the  one,  eternal,  absolute,  unchangeable  Being. 
He  unfolds  into  the  universe  as  Creator  and  Created.  He 
becomes  first  ether,  then  air,  then  fire,  then  water,  then 
earth.  From  these  five  elements  all  bodily  existence  pro¬ 
ceeds.  Souls  are  sparks  from  the  central  fire  of  Brahma, 
separated  for  a  time,  to  be  absorbed  again  at  last. 

Brahma,  in  his  highest  form  as  Para-Brahm,  stands 
for  the  Absolute  Being.  The  following  extract  from 

*  Duncker,  I.  205.  He  refers  to  Manu,  II.  160. 


BRAHMANISM. 


117 


tlie  Sama-Veda  (after  Hang’s  translation)  expresses  this : 
“  The  generation  of  Brahma  was  before  all  ages,  unfolding 
himself  evermore  in  a  beautiful  glory ;  everything  which 
is  highest  and  everything  which  is  deepest  belongs  to  him. 
Being  and  Hot-Being  are  unveiled  through  Brahma.” 

The  following  passage  is  from  a  Upanishad,  translated 
by  Windischmann :  — 

“  How  can  any  one  teach  concerning  Brahma  ?  he  is 
neither  the  known  nor  the  unknown.  That  which  cannot 
be  expressed  by  words,  but  through  which  all  expression 
comes,  this  I  know  to  be  Brahma.  That  which  cannot  be 
thought  by  the  mind,  but  by  which  all  thinking  comes, 
this  I  know  is  Brahma.  That  which  cannot  be  seen  by 
the  eye,  but  by  which  the  eye  sees,  is  Brahma.  If  thou 
thinkest  that  thou  canst  know  it,  then  in  truth  thou 
knowest  it.  very  little.  To  whom  it  is  unknown,  he 
knows  it ;  but  to  whom  it  is  known,  he  knows  it  not.” 

This  also  is  from  Windischmann,  from  the  Kathaka 
Upanishad:  “One  cannot  attain  to  it  through  the  word, 
through  the  mind,  or  through  the  eye.  It  is  only  reached 
by  him  who  says,  ‘It  is  !  It  is  ! ’  He  perceives  it  in  its 
essence.  Its  essence  appears  when  one  perceives  it  as 
it  is.” 

The  old  German  expression  Istigkeit,  according  to  Bun¬ 
sen,  corresponds  to  this.  This  also  is  the  name  of  Je¬ 
hovah  as  given  to  Moses  from  the  burning  bush :  “  And 
God  said  unto  Moses,  I  am  the  I  am.  Thus  shalt  thou 
say  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  I  AM  hath  sent  me  unto 
you.”  The  idea  is  that  God  alone  really  exists,  and  that 
the  root  of  all  being  is  in  him.  This  is  expressed  in 
another  Upanishad :  “  He  who  exists  is  the  root  of  all 
creatures ;  he  who  exists  is  their  foundation,  and  in  him 
they  rest.” 

In  the  Vedanta  philosophy  this  speculative  pantheism 
is  carried  further.  Thus  speaks  Sankara,  the  chief  teacher 
of  the  Vedanta  philosophy  (“  Colebrooke’s  Essays”):  “I 
am-  the  great  Brahma,  eternal,  pure,  free,  one,  constant, 
happy,  existing  without  end.  He  who  ceases  to  contem¬ 
plate  other  things,  who  retires  into  solitude,  annihilates 
his  desires,  and  subjects  his  passions,  he  understands  that 


118 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Spirit  is  the  One  and  the  Eternal.  The  wise  man  anni¬ 
hilates  all  sensible  things  in  spiritual  things,  and  contem¬ 
plates  that  one  Spirit  who  resembles  pure  space.  Brahma 
is  without  size,  quality,  character,  or  division.” 

According  to  this  philosophy  (says  Bunsen)  the  world 
is  the  Not-Being.  It  is,  says  Sankara,  “  appearance  with¬ 
out  Being ;  it  is  like  the  deception  of  a  dream.”  “  The 
soul  itself,”  he  adds,  “  has  no  actual  being.” 

There  is  an  essay  on  Yedantism  in  a  book  published  in 
Calcutta,  1854,  by  a  young  Hindoo,  Shosliee  Chunder 
Dutt,  which  describes  the  creation  as  proceeding  from 
Maya,  in  this  way :  “  Dissatisfied  with  his  own  solitude, 
Brahma  feels  a  desire  to  create  worlds,  and  then  the 
volition  ceases  so  far  as  he  is  concerned,  and  he  sinks 
again  into  his  apathetic  happiness,  while  the  desire,  thus 
willed  into  existence,  assumes  an  active  character.  It 
becomes  Maya,  and  by  this  was  the  universe  created, 
without  exertion  on  the  part  of  Brahma.  This  passing 
wish  of  Brahma  carried,  however,  no  reality  with  it. 
And  the  creation  proceeding  from  it  is  only  an  illusion. 
There  is  only  one  absolute  Unity  really  existing,  and 
existing  without  plurality.  But  he  is  like  one  asleep. 
Krishna,  in  the  Gita,  says :  ‘  These  works  (the  universe) 
confine  not  me,  for  I  am  like  one  who  sitteth  aloof  unin¬ 
terested  in  them  all.’  The  universe  is  therefore  all 
illusion,  holding  a  position  between  something  and  noth¬ 
ing.  It  is  real  as  an  illusion,  but  unreal  as  being.  It  is 
not  true,  because  it  has  no  essence ;  but  not  false,  be¬ 
cause  its  existence,  even  as  illusion,  is  from  God.  The 
Vedanta  declares :  ‘  From  the  highest  state  of  Brahma  to 
the  lowest  condition  of  a  straw,  all  things  are  delusion.’  ” 
Chunder  Dutt,  however,  contradicts  Bunsen’s  assertion 
that  the  soul  also  is  an  illusion  according  to  the  Vedanta. 
“The  soul,”  he  says,  “is  not  subject  to  birth  or  death,  but 
is  in  its  substance,  from  Brahma  himself.”  The  truth 
seems  to  be  that  the  Vedanta  regards  the  individuation 
of  the  soul  as  from  Maya  and  illusive,  but  the  substance 
of  the  soul  is  from  Brahma,  and  destined  to  be  absorbed 
into  him.  As  the  body  of  man  is  to  be  resolved  into  its 
material  elements,  so  the  soul  of  man  is  to  be  resolved 


BRAHMANISM. 


119 


into  Brahma.  This  substance  of  the  soul  is  neither  born 
nor  dies,  nor  is  it  a  thing  of  which  it  can  be  said,  “  It 
was,  is,  or  shall  be.”  In  the  Gita,  Krishna  tells  Arjun 
that  he  and  the  other  princes  of  the  world  “  never  were 
not.”  * 

The  Vedantist  philosopher,  however,  though  he  con¬ 
siders  all  souls  as  emanations  from  God,  does  not  believe 
that  all  of  them  will  return  into  God  at  death.  Those  only 
who  have  obtained  a  knowledge  of  God  are  rewarded  by 
absorption,  but  the  rest  continue  to  migrate  from  body  to 
body  so  long  as  they  remain  unqualified  for  the  same. 
“The  knower  of  God  becomes  God.”  This  union  with 
the  Deity  is  the  total  loss  of  personal  identity,  and  is  the 
attainment  of  the  highest  bliss,  in  which  are  no  grades 
and  from  which  is  no  return.  This  absorption  comes  not 
from  good  works  or  penances,  for  these  confine  the  soul 
and  do  not  liberate  it.  “  The  confinement  of  fetters  is  the 
same  whether  the  chain  be  of  gold  or  iron.”  “  The  knowl¬ 
edge  which  realizes  that  everything  is  Brahm  alone  lib¬ 
erates  the  soul.  It  annuls  the  effect  both  of  our  virtues 
and  vices.  We  traverse  thereby  both  merit  and  demerit, 
the  heart’s  knot  is  broken,  all  doubts  are  split,  and  all  our 
works  perish.  Only  by  perfect  abstraction,  not  merely 
from  the  senses,  but  also  from  the  thinking  intellect  and 
by  remaining  in  the  knowing  intellect,  does  the  devotee 
become  identified  with  Brahm.  He  then  remains  as  pure 
glass  when  the  shadow  has  left  it.  He  lives  destitute  of 
passions  and  affections.  He  lives  sinless ;  for  as  water 
wets  not  the  leaf  of  the  lotus,  so  sin  touches  not  him  who 
knows  God.”  He  stands  in  no  further  need  of  virtue, 
for  “  of  what  use  can  be  a  winnowing  fan  when  the  sweet 
southern  wind  is  blowing.”  His  meditations  are  of  this 
sort :  “  I  am  Brahm,  I  am  life.  I  am  everlasting,  perfect, 
self-existent/undivided,  joyful.” 

If  therefore,  according  to  this  system,  knowledge  alone 
unites  the  soul  to  God,  the  question  comes,  Of  what  use 
are  acts  of  virtue,  penances,  sacrifices,  worship  ?  The 
answer  is,  that  they  effect  a  happy  transmigration  from 

*  The  Bhaga vat- Gita,  an  episode  in  the  Maha-Bharata,  in  an  authority 
with  the  Vedantists. 


120 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


the  lower  forms  of  bodily  life  to  higher  ones.  They  do 
not  accomplish  the  great  end,  which  is  absorption  and 
escape  from  Maya,  but  they  prepare  the  way  for  it  by 
causing  one  to  be  born  in  a  higher  condition. 

The  second  system  of  philosophy,  the  Sankhya  of 
Kapila,  is  founded  not  on  one  principle,  like  the  Vedanta, 
but  on  two.  According  to  the  seventy  aphorisms,  Nature 
is  one  of  these  principles.  It  is  uncreated  and  eternal. 
•It  is  one,  active,  creating,  non-intelligent.  The  other  of 
the  two  principles,  also  uncreated  and  eternal,  is  Soul,  or 
rather  Souls.  Souls  are  many,  passive,  not  creative,  in¬ 
telligent,  and  in  all  things  the  opposite  to  Nature.  But 
from  the  union  of  the  two  all  the  visible  universe  pro¬ 
ceeds,  according  to  the  law  of  cause  and  effect. 

God  not  being  recognized  in  this  system,  it  is  often 
called  atheism.  Its  argument,  to  show  that  no  one 
perfect  being  could  create  the  universe,  is  this.  Desire 
implies  want,  or  imperfection.  Accordingly,  if  God  desired 
to  create,  he  would  be  unable  to  do  so ;  if  he  was  able,  he 
would  not  desire  to  do  it.  In  neither  case,  therefore,  could 
God  have  created  the  universe.  The  gods  are  spoken  of 
by  the  usual  names,  Brahma,  Indra,  etc.,  but  are  all  finite 
beings,  belonging  to  the  order  of  human  souls,  though 
superior. 

Every  soul  is  clothed  in  two  bodies,  —  the  interior  origi¬ 
nal  body,  the  individualizing  force,  which  is  eternal  as 
itself  and  accompanies  it  through  all  its  migrations ;  and 
the  material,  secondary  body,  made  of  the  five  elements, 
ether,  air,  fire,  water,  and  earth.  The  original  body  is 
subtile  and  spiritual.  It  is  the  office  of  Nature  to  liberate 
the  Soul.  Nature  is  not  what  we  perceive  by  the  senses, 
but  an  invisible  plastic  principle  behind,  which  must  be 
known  by  the  intellect.  As  the  Soul  ascends  by  good¬ 
ness,  it  is  freed  by  knowledge.  The  final  result  of  this 
emancipation  is  the  certainty  of  non-existence,  — “  neither 
I  am,  nor  is  aught  mine,  nor  do  I  exist,”  —  which  seems 
to  be  the  same  result  as  that  of  Hegel,  Being  =  Not- 
Being.  Two  or  three  of  the  aphorisms  of  the  Karika  are 
as  follows :  — 

“  LIX.  As  a  dancer,  having  exhibited  herself  to  the  specta- 


BRAHMANISM. 


121 


tor,  desists  from  the  dance,  so  does  Nature  desist,  having 
manifested  herself  to  the  Soul.” 

“  LX.  Generous  Nature,  endued  with  qualities,  does  by 
manifold  means  accomplish,  without  benefit  (to  herself ),  the 
wish  of  ungrateful  Soul,  devoid  of  qualities.” 

“  LXI.  Nothing,  in  my  opinion,  is  more  gentle  than 
Nature  ;  once  aware  of  having  been  seen,  she  does  not  again 
expose  herself  to  the  gaze  of  Soul.” 

“  LXYI.  Soul  desists,  because  it  has  seen  Nature.  Nature 
desists,  because  she  has  been  seen.  In  their  (mere)  union 
there  is  no  motive  for  creation.” 

Accordingly,  the  result  of  knowledge  is  to  put  an  end 
to  creation,  and  to  leave  the  Soul  emancipated  from  desire, 
from  change,  from  the  material  body,  in  a  state  which  is 
Being,  but  not  Existence  (esse,  not  existere ;  Seyn,  not 
Da-seyn). 

This  Sankhya  philosophy  becomes  of  great  importance, 
when  we  consider  that  it  was  the  undoubted  source  of 
Buddhism.  This  doctrine  which  we  have  been  describing 
was  the  basis  of  Buddhism* * * § 

M.  Cousin  has  called  it  the  sensualism  of  India,*f-  but 
certainly  without  propriety.  It  is  as  purely  ideal  a  doc¬ 
trine  as  that  of  the  Vedas.  Its  two  eternal  principles  are 
both  ideal.  The  plastic  force  which  is  one  of  them, 
Kapila  distinctly  declares  cannot  be  perceived  by  the 
senses.  f  Soul,  the  other  eternal  and  uncreated  principle, 
who  “  is  witness,  solitary,  bystander,  spectator,  and  pas¬ 
sive,”  §  is  not  only  spiritual  itself,  but  is  clothed  with  a 
spiritual  body,  within  the  material  body.  In  fact,  the 
Karika  declares  the  material  universe  to  be  the  result  of 
the  contact  of  the  Soul  with  Nature,  and  consists  in  chains 
with  which  Nature  binds  herself,  for  the  purpose  (uncon- 

*  Bumouf,  Introduction  a  l’Histoire  du  Buddhisme  Indien,  I.  511, 
520.  He  says  that  Sakya-Muni  began  his  career  with  the  ideas  of  the 
Sankhya  philosophy,  namely,  absence  of  God  ;  multiplicity  and  eternity  of 
human  souls  ;  an  eternal  plastic  nature  ;  transmigration  ;  and  Nirvana, 
or  deliverance  by  knowledge. 

t  Cours  de  l'Histoire  de  Philosophie,  I.  200  (Paris,  1829)  ;  quoted  by 
Hardwick,  I.  211. 

X  Karika,  8.  “It  is  owing  to  the  subtilty  of  Nature  ....  that  it 
is  not  apprehended  by  the  senses.” 

§  Karika,  19. 


6 


122 


TEN  GKEAT  EELIGIONS. 


scious)  of  delivering  the  Soul.  "When  by  a  process  of 
knowledge  the  Soul  looks  through  these,  and  perceives 
the  ultimate  principle  beyond,  the  material  universe 
ceases,  and  both  Soul  and  Nature  are  emancipated.* 

One  of  the  definitions  of  the  Karika  will  call  to  mind 
the  fourfold  division  of  the  universe  by  the  great  thinker 
of  the  ninth  century,  Erigena.  In  his  work,  nep\  tyvo-eos 
pepio-pov,  he  asserts  that  there  is,  (1.)  A  Nature  which 
creates  and  is  not  created.  (2.)  A  Nature  which  is 
created  and  creates.  (3.)  A  Nature  which  is  created  and 
does  not  create.  (4.)  A  Nature  which  neither  creates 
nor  is  created.  So  Kapila  (Karika,  3)  says,  “  Nature,  the 
root  of  all  things,  is  productive  hut  not  a  production. 
Seven  principles  are  productions  and  productive.  Six¬ 
teen  are  productions  hut  not  productive.  Soul  is  neither 
a  production  nor  productive.” 

Mr.  Muir  (Sanskrit  Texts,  Part  III.  p.  96)  quotes  the 
following  passages  in  proof  of  the  antiquity  of  Kapila,  and 
the  respect  paid  to  his  doctrine  in  very  early  times :  — 

Svet.  Upanishacl.  “  The  God  who  superintends  every  mode 
of  production  and  all  forms,  who  formerly  nourished  with 
various  knowledge  his  son  Kapila  the  rishi,  and  beheld  him  at 
his  birth.” 

“  Bhagavat  Purana  (I.  3,  10)  makes  Kapila  an  incarnation 
of  Vischnu.  In  his  fifth  incarnation,  in  the  form  of  Kapila, 
he  declared  to  Asuri  the  Sankhya  which  defines  the  collection 
of  principles. 

“Bhagavat  Purana  (IX.  8,  12)  relates  that  Kapila,  being 
attacked  by  the  sons  of  King  Sangara,  destroyed  them  with 
fire  which  issued  from  his  body.  But  the  author  of  the  Purana 
denies  that  this  was  done  in  anger.  ‘  How  could  the  sage,  by 
whom  the  strong  ship  of  the  Sankhya  was  launched,  on  which 
the  man  seeking  emancipation  crosses  the  ocean  of  existence, 
entertain  the  distinction  of  friend  and  foe  ’  1  ” 

The  Sankhya  system  is  also  frequently  mentioned  in  the 
Mahaharata. 

The  Nyaya  system  differs  from  that  of  Kapila,  by 
assuming  a  third  eternal  and  indestructible  principle  as 
the  basis  of  matter,  namely,  Atoms.  It  also  assumes  the 


*  Karika,  58,  62,  63,  68. 


BRAHMANISM. 


123 


existence  of  a  Supreme  Soul,  Brahma,  who  is  almighty 
and  allwise.  It  agrees  with  Kapila  in  making  all  souls 
eternal,  and  distinct  from  body.  Its  evil  to  be  overcome 
is  the  same,  namely,  transmigration ;  and  its  method 
of  release  is  the  same,  namely  Buddlii ,  or  knowledge.  It 
is  a  more  dialectic  system  than  the  others,  and  is  rather 
of  the  nature  of  a  logic  than  a  philosophy. 

Mr.  Banerjea,  in  his  Dialogues  on  the  Hindu  philosophy, 
considers  the  Buddhists’  system  as  closely  resembling 
the  Nyaya  system.  He  regards  the  Buddhist  Nirvana 
as  equivalent  to  the  emancipation  of  the  Nyaya  system. 
Apavarga,  or  emancipation,  is  declared  in  this  philoso¬ 
phy  to  be  final  deliverance  from  pain,  birth,  activity, 
fault,  and  false  notions.  Even  so  the  Pali  doctrinal  books 
speak  of  Nirvana  as  an  exemption  from  old  age,  dis¬ 
ease,  and  death.  In  it  desire,  anger,  and  ignorance  are 
consumed  by  the  fire  of  knowledge.  Here  all  selfish 
distinctions  of  mine  and  thine,  all  evil  thoughts,  all  slan¬ 
der  and  jealousy,  are  cut  down  by  the  weapon  of  knowl¬ 
edge.  Here  we  have  an  experience  of  immortality  which 
is  cessation  of  all  trouble  and  perfect  felicity.* 

§  7.  Origin  of  the  Hindoo  Triad. 

There  had  gradually  grown  up  among  the  people  a  wor¬ 
ship  founded  on  that  of  the  ancient  Vedas.  In  the  West 
of  India,  the  god  Budra,  mentioned  in  the  Vedic  hymns, 
had  been  transformed  into  Siva.  In  the  Rig- Veda 
Rudra  is  sometimes  the  name  for  Agni.-f  He  is  described 
as  father  of  the  winds.  He  is  the  same  as  Maha-deva.  He 
is  fierce  and  beneficent  at  once.  He  presides  over  medi¬ 
cinal  plants.  According  to  Weber  (Indische  Stud.,  II.  19) 
he  is  the  Storm-God.  The  same  view  is  taken  by  Profes¬ 
sor  Whitney.  J  But  his  worship  gradually  extended,  until, 
under  the  name  of  Siva,  the  Destroyer,  he  became  one  of 

*  Quoted  from  tlie  Lalita  Vistara  in  Dialogues  on  the  Hindu  Philos¬ 
ophy.  By  Rev.  R.  M.  Banerjea.  London  :  Williams  and  Nordgate. 
1861. 

+  Muir,  Sanskrit  Texts,  Part  IV.  p.  253. 

X  Journal  Am.  Orient.  Soc.,  III.  318. 


124 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


the  principal  deities  of  India.  Meantime,  in  the  'valley 
of  the  Ganges,  a  similar  devotion  had  grown  np  for  the 
Yedic  god  Yischnu,  who  in  like  manner  had  been  pro¬ 
moted  to  the  chief  rank  in  the  Hindoo  Pantheon.  He  had 
been  elevated  to  the  character  of  a  Friend  and  Protector, 
gifted  with  mild  attributes,  and  worshipped  as  the  life  of 
Nature.  By  accepting  the  popular  worship,  the  Brah¬ 
mans  were  able  to  oppose  Buddhism  with  success. 

We  have  no  doubt  that  the  Hindoo  Triad  came  from  the 
effort  of  the  Brahmans  to  unite  all  India  in  one  worship, 
and  it  may  for  a  time  have  succeeded.  Images  of  the 
Trimurtti,  or  three-faced  God,  are  frequent  in  India,  and 
this  is  still  the  object  of  Brahmanical  worship.  But  be¬ 
side  this  practical  motive,  the  tendency  of  thought  is 
always  toward  a  triad  of  law,  force,  or  elemental  substance, 
as  the  best  explanation  of  the  universe.  Hence  there  have 
been  Triads  in  so  many  religions  :  in  Egypt,  of  Osiris  the 
Creator,  Typlion  the  Destroyer,  and  Horns  the  Preserver ; 
in  Persia,  of  Ormctzd  the  Creator,  Ahriman  the  Destroyer, 
and  Mithra  the  Bestorer ;  in  Buddhism,  of  Buddha  the 
Divine  Man,  Dliarmma  the  Word,  and  Sangha  the  Com¬ 
munion  of  Saints.  Simple  monotheism  does  not  long 
satisfy  the  speculative  intellect,  because,  though  it  accounts 
for  the  harmonies  of  creation,  it  leaves  its  discords  unex¬ 
plained.  But  a  dualism  of  opposing  forces  is  found  still 
more  unsatisfactory,  for  the  world  does  not  appear  to  be 
such  a  scene  of  utter  warfare  and  discord  as  this.  So  the 
mind  comes  to  accept  a  Triad,  in  which  the  unities  of  life 
and  growth  proceed  from  one  element,  the  antagonisms 
from  a  second,  and  the  higher  harmonies  of  reconciled  op¬ 
positions  from  a  third.  The  Brahmanical  Triad  arose  in 
the  same  way.* 

Thus  grew  up,  from  amid  the  spiritual  pantheism  into 
which  all  Hindoo  religion  seemed  to  have  settled,  another 
system,  that  of  the  Trimurtti,  or  Divine  Triad  ;  the  Indian 
Trinity  of  Brahma,  Vischnu,  and  Siva.  This  Triad  ex- 

*  Even  in  the  grammatical  forms  of  the  Sanskrit  verb,  this  threefold 
tendency  of  thought  is  indicated.  It  has  an  active,  passive,  and  middle 
voice  (like  that  of  the  cognate  Greek),  and  the  reflex  action  of  its  middle 
voice  corresponds  to  the  Restorer  or  Preserver. 


BRAHMANISM. 


125 


presses  the  unity  of  Creation,  Destruction,  and  Restora- 
tion.  A  foundation  for  this  already  existed  in  a  Yedic 
saying,  that  the  highest  being  exists  in  three  states,  that 
of  creation,  continuance,  and  destruction. 

Neither  of  these  three  supreme  deities  of  Brahmanism 
held  any  high  rank  in  the  Vedas.  Siva  (Qiva)  does  not  ap¬ 
pear  therein  at  all,  nor,  according  to  Lassen,  is  Brahma 
mentioned  in  the  Vedic  hymns,  but  first  in  a  Upanishad. 
Vischnu  is  spoken  of  in  the  Rig-Veda,  but  always  as  one 
of  the  names  for  the  sun.  He  is  the  Sun-God.  His  three 
steps  are  sunrise,  noon,  and  sunset.  He  is  mentioned  as 
one  of  the  sons  of  Aditi ;  he  is  called  the  “  wide-step¬ 
ping,”  “  measurer  of  the  world,”  “  the  strong,”  “  the  de¬ 
liverer,”  “  renewer  of  life,”  “  who  sets  in  motion  the 
revolutions  of  time,”  “  a  protector,”  “  preserving  the  high¬ 
est  heaven.”  Evidently  he  begins  his  career  in  this  my¬ 
thology  as  the  sun. 

Brahma,  at  first  a  word  meaning  prayer  and  devotion, 
becomes  in  the  laws  of  Manu  the  primal  God,  first-born 
of  the  creation,  from  the  self-existent  being,  in  the  form 
of  a  golden  egg.  He  became  the  creator  of  all  things  by 
the  power  of  prayer.  In  the  struggle  for  ascendency 
which  took  place  between  the  priests  and  the  warriors, 
Brahma  naturally  became  the  deity  of  the  former.  But, 
meantime,  as  we  have  seen,  the  worship  of  Vischnu  had 
been  extending  itself  in  one  region  and  that  of  Siva  in 
another.  Then  took  place  those  mysterious  wars  between 
the  kings  of  the  Solar  and  Lunar  races,  of  which  the  great 
epics  contain  all  that  we  know.  And  at  the  close  of 
these  wars  a  compromise  was  apparently  accepted,  by 
which  Brahma,  Vischnu,  and  Siva  were  united  in  one  su¬ 
preme  God,  as  creator,  preserver,  and  destroyer,  all  in  one. 

It  is  almost  certain  that  this  Hindoo  Triad  was  the 
result  of  an  ingenious  and  successful  attempt,  on  the  part 
of  the  Brahmans,  to  unite  all  classes  of  worshippers  in 
India  against  the  Buddhists.  In  this  sense  the  Brahmans 
edited  anew  the  Mahabharata,  inserting  in  that  epic 
passages  extolling  Vischnu  in  the  form  of  Krishna.  The 
Greek  accounts  of  India  which  followed  the  invasion  of 
Alexander  speak  of  the  worship  of  Hercules  as  prevalent 


126 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


in  the  East,  and  by  Hercules  they  apparently  mean  the 
god  Krishna*  The  struggle  between  the  Brahmans  and 
Buddhists  lasted  during  nine  centuries  (from  A.  D.  500 
to  A.  d.  1400),  ending  with  the  total  expulsion  of  Buddh¬ 
ism,  and  the  triumphant  establishment  of  the  Triad,  as 
the  worship  of  India.*)* 

Before  this  Triad  or  Trimurtti  (of  Brahma,  Yischnu, 
and  Siva)  there  seems  to  have  been  another,  consist¬ 
ing  of  Agni,  Indra,  and  Surya.  j  This  may  have  given  the 
hint  of  the  second  Triad,  which  distributed  among  the 
three  gods  the  attributes  of  Creation,  Destruction,  and 
Benovation.  Of  these  Brahma,  the  Creator,  ceased  soon  to 
be  popular,  and  the  worship  of  Siva  and  Yischnu  as 
Krishna  remain  as  the  popular  religion  of  India. 

One  part,  and  a  very  curious  one,  of  the  worship  of 
Yischnu  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Avatars,  or  incarnations 
of  that  deity.  There  are  ten  of  these  Avatars,  —  nine 
have  passed  and  one  is  to  come.  The  object  of  Yischnu 
is,  each  time,  to  save  the  gods  from  destruction  impending 
over  them  in  consequence  of  the  immense  power  acquired 
by  some  king,  giant,  or  demon,  by  superior  acts  of  auster¬ 
ity  and  piety.  For  here,  as  elsewhere,  extreme  spiritualism 
is  often  divorced  from  morality ;  and  so  these  extremely 
pious,  spiritual,  and  self-denying  giants  are  the  most  cruel 
and  tyrannical  monsters,  who  must  be  destroyed  at  all 
hazards.  Yischnu,  by  force  or  fraud,  overcomes  them  all. 

His  first  Avatar  is  of  the  Fish,  as  related  in  the  Maha- 
bharata.  The  object  was  to  recover  the  Yedas,  which  had 
been  stolen  by  a  demon  from  Brahma  when  asleep.  In 
consequence  of  this  loss  the  human  race  became  corrupt, 
and  were  destroyed  by  a  deluge,  except  a  pious  prince  and 
seven  holy  men  who  were  saved  in  a  ship.  Yischnu,  as  a 
large  fish,  drew  the  ship  safely  over  the  water,  killed  the 
demon,  and  recovered  the  Yedas.  The  second  Avatar  was 
in  a  Turtle,  to  make  the  drink  of  immortality.  The  third 
was  in  a  Boar,  the  fourth  in  a  Man-Lion,  the  fifth  in  the 
Dwarf  who  deceived  Bali,  who  had  become  so  powerful 

*  See  Colebrooke,  Lassen,  &c. 

+  Lassen,  I.  S38  ;  II.  446. 

+  See  Muir,  Sanskrit  Texts,  Part  IV.  p.  136. 


BRAHMANISM. 


127 


by  austerities  as  to  conquer  the  gods  and  take  possession 
of  Heaven.  In  the  eighth  Avatar  he  appears  as  Krishna 
and  in  the  ninth  as  Buddha. 

This  system  of  Avatars  is  so  peculiar  and  so  deeply 
rooted  in  the  system,  that  it  would  seem  to  indicate  some 
law  of  Hindoo  thought.  Perhaps  some  explanation  may  be 
reached  thus  :  — 

We  observe  that, — 

Vischnu  does  not  mediate  between  Brahma  and  Siva, 
but  between  the  deities  and  the  lower  races  of  men  or 
demons. 

The  danger  arises  from  a  certain  fate  or  necessity  which 
is  superior  both  to  gods  and  men.  There  are  laws  which 
enable  a  man  to  get  away  from  the  power  of  Brahma  and 
Siva. 

But  what  is  this  necessity  but  nature,  or  the  nature 
of  things,  the  laws  of  the  outward  world  of  active  exist¬ 
ences  ?  It  is  not  till  essence  becomes  existence,  till  spirit 
passes  into  action,  that  it  becomes  subject  to  law. 

The  danger  then  is  from  the  world  of  nature.  The 
gods  are  pure  spirit,  and  spirit  is  everything.  But,  now 
and  then,  nature  seems  to  be  something ,  it  will  not  be  ig¬ 
nored  or  lost  in  God.  Personality,  activity,  or  human 
nature  rebel  against  the  pantheistic  idealism,  the  abstract 
spiritualism  of  this  system. 

To  conquer  body,  Vischnu  or  spirit  enters  into  body, 
again  and  again.  Spirit  must  appear  as  body  to  destroy 
Nature.  For  thus  is  shown  that  spirit  cannot  be  excluded 
from  anything,  —  that  it  can  descend  into  the  lowest 
forms  of  life,  and  work  in  law  as  well  as  above  law. 

But  all  the  efforts  of  Brahmanism  could  not  arrest  the 
natural  development  of  the  system.  It  passed  on  into 
polytheism  and  idolatry.  The  worship  of  India  for  many 
centuries  has  been  divided  into  a  multitude  of  sects. 
While  the  majority  of  the  Brahmans  still  profess  to  recog¬ 
nize  the  equal  divinity  of  Brahma,  Vischnu,  and  Siva,  the 
mass  of  the  people  worship  Krishna,  Kama,  the  Lingam, 
and  many  other  gods  and  idols.  There  are  Hindoo  athe¬ 
ists  who  revile  the  Vedas;  there  are  the  Kabirs,  who  are 
a  sort  of  Hindoo  Quakers,  and  oppose  all  worship ;  the 


128 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Ramanujas,  an  ancient  sect  of  Vischnu  worshippers ;  the 
Ramavats,  living  in  monasteries ;  the  Panthis,  who  oppose 
all  austerities ;  the  Maharajas,  whose  religion  consists 
with  great  licentiousness.  Most  of  these  are  worshippers 
of  Vischnu  or  of  Siva,  for  Brahma-worship  has  wholly 
disappeared. 


§  8.  The  Epics,  the  Pur  anas,  and  modern  Hindoo  W or  ship. 

The  Hindoos  have  two  great  epics,  the  Ramayana  and 
the  Mahabharata,  each  of  immense  length,  and  very 
popular  with  the  people.  Mr.  Talhoys  Wheeler  has  re¬ 
cently  incorporated  both  epics  (of  course  much  abridged) 
into  his  History  of  India,  and  we  must  refer  our  readers 
to  his  work  for  a  knowledge  of  these  remarkable  poems. 
The  whole  life  of  ancient  India  appears  in  them,  and  cer¬ 
tainly  they  are  not  unworthy  products  of  the  genius  of 
that  great  nation. 

According  to  Lassen,* * * §  the  period  to  which  the  great 
Indian  epics  refer  follows  directly  on  the  Vedic  age. 
Yet  they  contain  passages  inserted  at  a  much  later  epoch, 
probably,  indeed,  as  long  after  as  the  war  which  ended  in 
the  expulsion  of  the  Buddhists  from  India.*)*  Mr.  Talboys 
Wheeler  considers  the  war  of  Rama  and  the  Monkeys 
against  Ravana  to  refer  to  this  conflict,  and  so  makes  the 
Ramayana  later  than  the  Mahabharata.  The  majority 
of  writers,  however,  differ  from  him  on  this  point.  The 
writers  of  the  Mahabharata  were  evidently  Brahmans, 
educated  under  the  laws  of  Manu.j  But  it  is  very  diffi¬ 
cult  to  fix  the  date  of  either  poem  with  any  approach  to 
accuracy.  Lassen  lias  proved  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
Mahabharata  was  written  before  the  political  establish¬ 
ment  of  Buddhism. §  These  epics  were  originally  trans¬ 
mitted  by  oral  tradition.  They  must  have  been  brought 
to  their  present  forms  by  Brahmans,  for  their  doctrine  is  • 
that  of  this  priesthood.  How  if  such  poems  had  been 

*  Lassen,  Ind.  Alterthum,  I.  357. 

+  Max  Muller,  Sanskrit  Lit.,  37. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  46. 

§  Ind.  Alterthum,  I.  483  -  499.  Mtiller,  Sanskrit  Lit.,  62,  note . 


BRAHMANISM. 


129 


composed  after  the  time  of  Asoka,  when  Buddhism  be> 
came  a  state  religion  in  India,  it  must  have  been  often 
referred  to.  No  such  references  appear  in  these  epics, 
except  in  some  solitary  passages,  which  are  evidently 
modern  additions*  Hence  the  epics  must  have  been 
composed  before  the  time  of  Buddhism.  This  argument 
of  Lassen’s  is  thought  by  Max  Muller  to  be  conclusive, 
and  if  so  it  disproves  Mr.  Talboys  Wheeler’s  view  of  the 
purpose  of  the  Bamayana. 

Few  Hindoos  now  read  the  Yedas.  The  Puranas  and 
the  two  great  epics  constitute  their  sacred  books.  The 
Kamayana  contains  about  fifty  thousand  lines,  and  is  held 
in  great  veneration  by  the  Hindoos.  It  describes  the 
youth  of  Kama,  who  is  an  incarnation  of  Vischnu,  his 
banishment  and  residence  in  Central  India,  and  his  war 
with  the  giants  and  demons  of  the  South,  to  recover  his 
wife,  Sita.  It  probably  is  founded  on  some  real  war 
between  the  early  Aryan  invaders  of  Hindostan  and  the 
indigenous  inhabitants. 

The  Mahabharata,  which  is  probably  of  later  date, 
contains  about  two  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  lines, 
and  is  divided  into  eighteen  books,  each  of  which  would 
make  a  large  volume.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been  col¬ 
lected  by  Yyasa,  who  also  collected  the  Yedas  and 
Puranas.  These  legends  are  very  old,  and  seem  to  refer 
to  the  early  history  of  India.  There  appear  to  have  been 
two  Aryan  dynasties  in  ancient  India,  —  the  Solar  and 
Lunar.  Eama  belonged  to  the  first  and  Bharata  to  the 
second.  Pandu,  a  descendant  of  the  last,  has  five  brave 
sons,  who  are  the  heroes  of  this  book.  One  of  them, 
Arjuna,  is  especially  distinguished.  One  of  the  episodes 
is  the  famous  Bhagavat-gita.  Another  is  called  the  Brah¬ 
man’s  Lament.  Another  describes  the  deluge,  showing 
the  tradition  of  a  flood  existing  in  India  many  centuries 
before  Christ.  Another  gives  the  story  of  Savitri  and 
Satyavan.  These  episodes  occupy  three  fourths  of  the 
poem,  and  from  them  are  derived  most  of  the  legends  of 


*  As  of  the  Atheist  in  the  Ramayana,  Javali,  who  advises  Rama  to 
disobey  his  dead  father’s  commands,  on  the  ground  that  the  dead  are 
nothing. 


6* 


I 


130 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


the  Puranas.  A  supplement,  which  is  itself  a  longer 
poem  than  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  combined  (which 
together  contain  about  thirty  thousand  lines),  is  the 
source  of  the  modern  worship  of  Krishna.  The  whole 
poem  represents  the  multilateral  character  of  Hinduism. 
It  indicates  a  higher  degree  of  civilization  than  that  of 
the  Homeric  poems,  and  describes  a  vast  variety  of  fruits 
and  flowers  existing  under  culture.  The  characters  are 
nobler  and  purer  than  those  of  Homer.  The  pictures 
of  domestic  and  social  life  are  very  touching;  children 
are  dutiful  to  their  parents,  parents  careful  of  their 
children;  wives  are  loyal  and  obedient,  yet  independent 
in  their  opinions;  and  peace  reigns  in  the  domestic 
circle. 

The  different  works  known  as  the  Puranas  are  derived 
from  the  same  religious  system  as  the  two  epics.  They 
repeat  the  cosmogony  of  the  poems,  and  they  relate  more 
fully  their  mythological  legends.  Siva  and  Yischnu  are 
almost  the  sole  objects  of  worship  in  the  Puranas.  There 
is  a  sectarian  element  in  their  devotion  to  these  deities 
which  shows  their  partiality,  and  prevents  them  from 
being  authorities  for  Hindoo  belief  as  a  whole  * 

The  Puranas,  in  their  original  form,  belong  to  a  period, 
says  Mr.  Wilson,  a  century  before  the  Christian  era. 
They  grew  out  of  the  conflict  between  Buddhism  and 
Brahmanism.  The  latter  system  had  offered  no  personal 
gods  to  the  people  and  given  them  no  outward  worship, 
and  the  masses  had  been  uninterested  in  the  abstract 
view  of  Deity  held  by  the  Brahmans.*)* 

According  to  Mr.  Wilson, ,J  there  are  eighteen  Puranas 
which  are  now  read  by  the  common  people.  They  are 
read  a  great  deal  by  women.  Some  are  very  ancient,  or  at 
least  contain  fragments  of  more  ancient  Puranas.  The 
very  word  signifies  “antiquity.”  Most  of  them  are  de¬ 
voted  to  the  worship  of  Yischnu.  According  to  the 
Bhagavat  Purana,§  the  only  reasonable  object  of  life  is 

*  Preface  to  the  Yischnu  Purana,  translated  by  Horace  Hayman  Wil¬ 
son.  London,  1864. 

*t  Duncker,  Geschichte,  &c.,  II.  318. 

X  Preface  to  his  English  translation  of  the  Yischnu  Purana. 

§  Translated  by  E.  Burnouf  into  French. 


BRAHMANISM. 


131 


to  meditate  on  Vischnu.  Brahma,  who  is  called  in  one 
place  “the  cause  of  causes/’  proclaims  Vischnu  to  be 
the  only  pure  absolute  essence,  of  which  the  universe  is 
the  manifestation.  In  the  Vischnu  Purana,  Brahma,  at 
the  head  of  the  gods,  adores  Vischnu  as  the  Supreme 
Being  whom  he  himself  cannot  understand. 

The  power  of  ascetic  penances  is  highly  extolled  in  the 
Puranas,  as  also  in  the  epics.  In  the  Bhagavat  it  is  said 
that  Brahma,  by  a  penitence  of  sixteen  thousand  years, 
created  the  universe.  It  is  even  told  in  the  Ramayana, 
that  a  sage  of  a  lower  caste  became  a  Brahman  by  dint 
of  austerities,  in  spite  of  the  gods  who  considered  such 
a  confusion  of  castes  a  breach  of  Hindoo  etiquette*  To 
prevent  him  from  continuing  his  devotions,  they  sent  a 
beautiful  nymph  to  tempt  him,  and  their  daughter  was 
the  famous  Sakuntala.  But  in  the  end,  the  obstinate  old 
ascetic  conquered  the  gods,  and  when  they  still  refused  to 
Brahmanize  him,  he  began  to  create  new  heavens  and  new 
gods,  and  had  already  made  a  few  stars,  when  the  deities 
thought  it  prudent  to  yield,  and  allowed  him  to  become  a 
Brahman.  It  is  also  mentioned  that  the  Ganges,  the 
sacred  river,  in  the  course  of  her  wanderings,  overflowed 
the  sacrificial  ground  of  another  powerful  ascetic,  who 
incontinently  drank  up,  in  his  anger,  all  its  waters,  but 
was  finally  induced  by  the  persuasions  of  the  gods  to  set 
the  river  free  again  by  discharging  it  from  his  ears.  Such 
were  the  freaks  of  sages  in  the  times  of  the  Puranas. 

Never  was  there  a  more  complete  example  of  piety 
divorced  from  morality  than  in  these  theories.  The  most 
wicked  demons  acquire  power  over  gods  and  men,  by  de¬ 
vout  asceticism.  This  principle  is  already  fully  developed 
in  the  epic  poems.  The  plot  of  the  Ramayana  turns 
around  this  idea.  A  Rajah,  Ravana,  had  become  so  pow¬ 
erful  by  sacrifice  and  devotion,  that  he  oppressed  the  gods ; 
compelled  Yama  (or  Death)  to  retire  from  his  dominions ; 
compelled  the  sun  to  shine  there  all  the  year,  and  the 
moon  to  be  always  full  above  his  Raj.  Agni  (Fire) 
must  not  burn  in  his  presence;  the  Maruts  (Winds) 

*  The  Ramayana,  Ac.,  by  Monier  Williams  Baden  Professor  of  San¬ 
skrit  at  Oxford. 


132 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


must  blow  only  as  lie  wishes.  He  cannot  be  hurt  by 
gods  or  demons.  So  Vischnu  becomes  incarnate  as  Bama. 
and  the  gods  become  incarnate  as  Monkeys,  in  order  to 
destroy  him.  Such  vast  power  was  supposed  to  be  at¬ 
tained  by  piety  without  morality. 

The  Puranas  are  derived  from  the  same  system  as  the 
epic  poems,  and  carry  out  further  the  same  ideas.  Siva 
and  Yischnu  are  almost  the  only  gods  who  are  worshipped, 
and  they  are  worshipped  with  a  sectarian  zeal  unknown  to 
the  epics.  Most  of  the  Puranas  contain  these  five  topics, 
—  Creation,  Destruction  and  Benovation,  the  Genealogy  of 
the  gods,  Beigns  of  the  Manus,  and  History  of  the  Solar 
and  Lunar  races.  Their  philosophy  of  creation  is  derived 
from  the  Sankhya  philosophy.  Pantheism  is  one  of  their 
invariable  characteristics,  as  they  always  identify  God 
and  Nature ;  and  herein  they  differ  from  the  system  of 
Kapila.  The  form  of  the  Puranas  is  always  that  of  a 
dialogue.  The  Puranas  are  eighteen  in  number,  and 
the  contents  of  the  whole  are  stated  to  be  one  mil¬ 
lion  six  hundred  thousand  lines.* 

The  religion  of  the  Hindoos  at  the  present  time  is  very 
different  from  that  of  the  Yedas  or  Manu.  Idolatry  is 
universal,  and  every  month  has  its  special  worship,  — 
April,  October,  and  January  being  most  sacred.  April 
begins  the  Hindoo  year.  During  this  sacred  month  bands 
of  singers  go  from  house  to  house,  early  in  the  morning, 
singing  hymns  to  the  gods.  On  the  1st  of  April  Hin¬ 
doos  of  all  castes  dedicate  pitchers  to  the  shades  of  their 
ancestors.  The  girls  bring  flowers  with  which  to  worship 
little  ponds  of  water  dedicated  to  Siva.  Women  adore 
the  river  Ganges,  bathing  in  it  and  offering  it  flowers. 
They  also  walk  in  procession  round  the  banyan  or  sacred 
tree.  Then  they  worship  the  cow,  pouring  water  on  her 
feet  and  putting  oil  on  her  forehead.  Sometimes  they 
take  a  vow  to  feed  some  particular  Brahman  luxuriously 
during  the  whole  month.  They  bathe  their  idols  with 
religious  care  every  day  and  offer  them  food.  This  lasts 
during  April  and  then  stops. 

In  May  the  women  of  India  worship  a  goddess  friendly 

*  Preface  to  the  translation  of  the  Yischnu  Purana,  by  H.  H.  Wilson. 


BRAHMANISM. 


133 


to  little  babies,  named  Shus-ty.  They  bring  the  infants 
to  be  blessed  by  some  venerable  woman  before  the  image 
of  the  goddess,  whose  messenger  is  a  cat.  Social  parties 
are  also  given  on  these  occasions,  although  the  lower 
castes  are  kept  distinct  at  four  separate  tables.  The 
women  also,  not  being  allowed  to  meet  with  the  men  at 
such  times,  have  a  separate  entertainment  by  themselves. 

The  month  of  June  is  devoted  to  the  bath  of  Jugger¬ 
naut,  who  was  one  of  the  incarnations  of  Vischnu.  The 
name,  Jugger-naut,  means  Lord  of  the  Universe.  His 
worship  is  comparatively  recent.  His  idols  are  extremely 
ugly.  But  the  most  remarkable  thing  perhaps  about 
this  worship  is  that  it  destroys,  for  the  time,  the  distinc¬ 
tion  of  castes.  While  within  the  walls  which  surround 
the  temple  Hindoos  of  every  caste  eat  together  from  the 
same  dish.  But  as  soon  as  they  leave  the  temple  this 
equality  disappears.  The  ceremony  of  the  bath  originated 
in  this  legend.  The  idol  Jugger-naut,  desiring  to  bathe 
in  the  Ganges,  came  in  the  form  of  a  boy  to  the  river,  and 
then  gave  one  of  his  golden  ornaments  to  a  confectioner 
for  something  to  eat.  Next  day  the  ornament  was  miss¬ 
ing,  and  the  priests  could  find  it  nowhere.  But  that  night 
in  a  dream  the  god  revealed  to  a  priest  that  he  had  given 
it  to  a  certain  confectioner  to  pay  for  his  lunch ;  and  it 
being  found  so,  a  festival  was  established  on  the  spot,  at 
which  the  idol  is  annually  bathed. 

The  other  festival  of  this  month  is  the  worship  of  the 
Ganges,  the  sacred  river  of  India.  Here  the  people 
come  to  bathe  and  to  offer  sacrifices,  which  consist  of 
flowers,  incense,  and  clothes.  The  most  sacred  spot  is 
where  the  river  enters  the  sea.  Before  plunging  into  the 
water  each  one  confesses  his  sins  to  the  goddess.  On  the 
surface  of  this  river  castes  are  also  abolished,  the  holi¬ 
ness  of  the  river  making  the  low-caste  man  also  holy. 

In  the  month  of  July  is  celebrated  the  famous  cere¬ 
mony  of  the  car  of  Jugger-naut,  instituted  to  commemo¬ 
rate  the  departure  of  Krishna  from  his  native  land.  These 
cars  are  in  the  form  of  a  pyramid,  built  several  stories 
high,  and  some  are  even  fifty  feet  in  height.  They  are 
found  in  every  part  of  India,  the  offerings  of  wealthy  peo- 


134 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


pie,  and  some  contain  costly  statues.  They  are  drawn 
by  hundreds  of  men,  it  being  their  faith  that  each  one 
who  pulls  the  rope  will  certainly  go  to  the  heaven  of 
Krishna  when  he  dies.  Multitudes,  therefore,  crowd 
around  the  rope  in  order  to  pull,  and  in  the  excitement 
they  sometimes  fall  under  the  wheels  and  are  crushed. 
But  this  is  accidental,  for  Krishna  does  not  desire  the 
suffering  of  his  worshippers.  He  is  a  mild  divinity,  and 
not  like  the  fierce  Siva,  who  loves  self-torture. 

In  the  month  of  August  is  celebrated  the  nativity  of 
Krishna,  the  story  of  whose  birth  resembles  that  in  the 
Gospel  in  this,  that  the  tyrant  whom  he  came  to  de¬ 
stroy  sought  to  kill  him,  but  a  heavenly  voice  told  the 
father  to  fly  with  the  child  across  the  Jumna,  and  the 
tyrant,  like  Herod,  killed  the  infants  in  the  village.  In 
this  month  also  is  a  feast  upon  which  no  fire  must  be 
kindled  or  food  cooked,  and  on  which  the  cactus-tree  and 
serpents  are  worshipped. 

In  September  is  the  great  festival  of  the  worship  of 
Doorga,  wife  of  Siva.  It  commences  on  the  seventh  day 
of  the  full  moon  and  lasts  three  days.  It  commemorates 
a  visit  made  by  the  goddess  to  her  parents.  The  idol  has 
three  eyes  and  ten  hands.  The  ceremony,  which  is  costly, 
can  only  be  celebrated  by  the  rich  people,  who  also  give 
presents  on  this  occasion  to  the  poor.  The  image  is 
placed  in  the  middle  of  the  hall  of  the  rich  man’s  house. 
One  Brahman  sits  before  the  image  with  flowers,  holy 
water,  incense.  Trays  laden  with  rice,  fruit,  and  other 
kinds  of  food  are  placed  near  the  image,  and  given  to 
the  Brahmans.  Goats  and  sheep  are  then  sacrificed  to 
the  idol  on  an  altar  in  the  yard  of  the  house.  When  the 
head  of  the  victim  falls  the  people  shout,  “Victory  to 
thee,  0  mother !  ”  Then  the  bells  ring,  the  trumpets 
sound,  and  the  people  shout  for  joy.  The  lamps  are 
waved  before  the  idol,  and  a  Brahman  reads  aloud  from 
the  Scripture.  Then  comes  a  dinner  on  each  of  the  three 
days,  to  which  the  poor  and  the  low-caste  people  are  also 
invited  and  are  served  by  the  Brahmans.  The  people 
visit  from  house  to  house,  and  in  the  evening  there  is 
music,  dancing,  and  public  shows.  So  that  the  worship 


BRAHMANISM. 


135 


of  the  Hindoos  is  by  no  means  all  of  it  ascetic,  but  much 
is  social  and  joyful,  especially  in  Bengal. 

In  October,  November,  and  December  there  are  fewer 
ceremonies.  January  is  a  month  devoted  to  religious 
bathing.  Also,  in  January,  the  religious  Hindoos  invite 
Brahmans  to  read  and  expound  the  sacred  books  in  their 
houses,  which  are  open  to  all  hearers.  In  February  there 
are  festivals  to  Krishna. 

The  month  of  March  is  devoted  to  ascetic  exercises, 
especially  to  the  famous  one  of  swinging  suspended  by 
hooks.  It  is  a  festival  in  honor  of  Siva.  A  procession 
goes  through  the  streets  and  enlists  followers  by  putting 
a  thread  round  their  necks.  Every  man  thus  enlisted 
must  join  the  party  and  go  about  with  it  till  the  end  of 
the  ceremony  under  pain  of  losing  caste.  On  the  day 
before  the  swinging,  men  thrust  iron  or  bamboo  sticks 
through  their  arms  or  tongues.  On  the  next  day  they 
march  in  procession  to  the  swinging  tree,  where  the  men 
are  suspended  by  hooks  and  whirled  round  the  tree  four 
or  five  times. 

It  is  considered  a  pious  act  in  India  to  build  temples, 
dig  tanks,  or  plant  trees  by  the  roadside.  Rich  people 
have  idols  in  their  houses  for  daily  worship,  and  pay  a 
priest  who  comes  every  morning  to  wake  up  the  idols, 
wash  and  dress  them,  and  offer  them  their  food.  In  the 
evening  he  comes  again,  gives  them  their  supper  and  puts 
them  to  bed. 

Mr.  Gangooly,  in  his  book,  from  which  most  of  the 
above  facts  are  drawn,  denies  emphatically  the  statement 
so  commonly  made  that  Hindoo  mothers  throw  their  in¬ 
fants  into  the  Ganges.  He  justly  says  that  the  maternal 
instinct  is  as  strong  with  them  as  with  others ;  and  in 
addition  to  that,  their  religion  teaches  them  to  offer 
sacrifices  for  the  life  and  health  of  their  children. 

§  9.  Relation  of  Brahmanism  to  Christianity. 

Having  thus  attempted,  in  the  space  we  can  here  use, 
to  give  an  account  of  Brahmanism,  we  close  by  showing 
its  special  relation  as  a  system  of  thought  to  Christianity. 


136 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Brahmanism  teaches  the  truth  of  the  reality  of  spirit, 
and  that  spirit  is  infinite,  absolute,  perfect,  one ;  that  it 
is  the  substance  underlying  all  existence.  Brahmanism 
glows  through  and  through  with  this  spirituality.  Its 
literature,  no  less  than  its  theology,  teaches  it.  It  is  in 
the  dramas  of  Calidasa,  as  well  as  in  the  sublime  strains 
of  the  Bhagavat-gita.  Something  divine  is  present  in  all 
nature  and  all  life,  — 

“  Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 

And  the  round  ocean  and  the  living  air.” 

Now,  with  this  Christianity  is  in  fullest  agreement. 
We  have  such  passages  in  the  Scripture  as  these  :  “  God 
is  a  Spirit  ” ;  “  God  is  love ;  whoso  dwelleth  in  love 
dwelleth  in  God,  and  God  in  him  ”  ;  “  In  him  we  live,  and 
move,  and  have  our  being  ” ;  “  He  is  above  all,  and 
through  all,  and  in  us  all.”  But  beside  these  texts,  which 
strike  the  key-note  of  the  music  which  was  to  come  after, 
there  are  divine  strains  of  spiritualism,  of  God  all  in  all, 
which  come  through  a  long  chain  of  teachers  of  the 
Church,  sounding  on  in  the  Confessions  of  Augustine, 
the  prayers  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  Anselm,  Bonaventura,  St. 
Bernard,  through  the  Latin  hymns  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  develop  themselves  at  last  in  what  is  called  romantic 
art  and  romantic  song.  A  Gothic  cathedral  like  Antwerp 
or  Strasburg,  —  what  is  it  but  a  striving  upward  of  the  soul 
to  lose  itself  in  God  ?  A  symphony  of  Beethoven,  — 
what  is  it  but  the  same  unbounded  longing  and  striving 
toward  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  ?  The  poetry  of  Words¬ 
worth,  of  Goethe,  Schiller,  Dante,  Byron,  Victor  Hugo, 
Manzoni,  all  partake  of  the  same  element.  It  is  opposed 
to  classic  art  and  classic  poetry  in  this,  that  instead  of 
limits,  it  seeks  the  unlimited ;  that  is,  it  believes  in  spirit, 
which  alone  is  the  unlimited  ;  the  mfinite,  that  which  is, 
not  that  which  appears ;  the  essence  of  things,  not  their 
existence  or  outwardness. 

Thus  Christianity  meets  and  accepts  the  truth  of  Brah¬ 
manism.  But  how  does  it  fulfil  Brahmanism  ?  The 
deficiencies  of  Brahmanism  are  these,  —  that  holding  to 
eternity,  it  omits  time,  and  so  loses  history.  It  therefore 


BRAHMANISM. 


137 


is  incapable  of  progress,  for  progress  takes  place  in  time. 
Believing  in  spirit,  or  infinite  unlimited  substance,  it 
loses  person,  or  definite  substance,  whether  infinite  or 
finite.  The  Christian  God  is  the  infinite,  definite  sub¬ 
stance,  self-limited  or  defined  by  his  essential  nature.  He 
is  good  and  not  bad,  righteous  and  not  the  opposite,  per¬ 
fect  love,  not  perfect  self-love.  Christianity,  therefore, 
gives  us  God  as  a  person,  and  man  also  as  a  person,  and 
so  makes  it  possible  to  consider  the  universe  as  order, 
kosmos,  method,  beauty,  and  providence.  For,  unless 
we  can  conceive  the  Infinite  Substance  as  definite,  and 
not  undefined ;  that  is,  as  a  person  with  positive  charac¬ 
ters  ;  there  is  no  difference  between  good  and  bad,  right 
and  wrong,  to-day  and  to-morrow,  this  and  that,  but  all  is 
one  immense  chaos  of  indefinite  spirit.  The  moment  that 
creation  begins,  that  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  moves  on  the 
face  of  the  waters,  and  says,  “  Let  there  be  light,”  and  so 
divides  light  from  darkness,  God  becomes  a  person,  and 
man  can  also  be  a  person.  Things  then  become  “  separate 
and  divisible  ”  which  before  were  “  huddled  and  lumped.” 

Christianity,  therefore,  fulfils  Brahmanism  by  adding 
to  eternity  time,  to  the  infinite  the  finite,  to  God  as  spirit 
God  as  nature  and  providence.  God  in  himself  is  the 
unlimited,  unknown,  dwelling  in  the  light  which  no  man 
can  approach  unto ;  hidden,  not  by  darkness,  but  by 
light.  But  God,  as  turned  toward  us  in  nature  and 
providence,  is  the  infinite  definite  substance,  that  is, 
having  certain  defined  characters,  though  these  have  no 
bounds  as  regards  extent.  This  last  view  of  God  Chris¬ 
tianity  shares  with  other  religions,  which  differ  from 
Brahmanism  in  the  opposite  direction.  For  example,  the 
religion  of  Greece  and  of  the  Greek  philosophers  never 
loses  the  definite  God,  however  high  it  may  soar.  While 
Brahmanism,  seeing  eternity  and  infinity,  loses  time  and 
the  finite,  the  Greek  religion,  dwelling  in  time,  often 
loses  the  eternal  and  the  spiritual.  Christianity  is  the 
mediator,  able  to  mediate,  not  by  standing  between  both, 
but  by  standing  beside  both.  It  can  lead  the  Hindoos  to 
an  Infinite  Friend,  a  perfect  Father,  a  Divine  Providence, 
and  so  make  the  possibility  for  them  of  a  new  progress, 


138 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


and  give  to  that  ancient  and  highly  endowed  race  another 
chance  in  history.  What  they  want  is  evidently  moral 
power,  for  they  have  all  intellectual  ability.  The  effemi¬ 
nate  quality  which  has  made  them  slaves  of  tyrants  dur¬ 
ing  two  thousand  years  will  be  taken  out  of  them,  and  a 
virile  strength  substituted,  when  they  come  to  see  God  as 
law  and  love,  —  perfect  law  and  perfect  love,  —  and  to 
see  that  communion  with  him  comes,  not  from  absorption, 
contemplation,  and  inaction,  but  from  active  obedience, 
moral  growth,  and  personal  development.  For  Chris¬ 
tianity  certainly  teaches  that  we  unite  ourselves  with 
God,  not  by  sinking  into  and  losing  our  personality,  in 
him,  but  by  developing  it,  so  that  we  may  be  able  to  serve 
and  love  him. 


BUDDHISM. 


139 


CHAPTER  IV. 

BUDDHISM,  OR  THE  PROTESTANTISM  OF  THE  EAST. 


§  1.  Buddhism,  in  its  Forms,  resembles  Romanism  ;  in  its  Spirit,  Prot¬ 
estantism.  §  2.  Extent  of  Buddhism.  Its  Scriptures.  §  3.  Sakya- 
muni,  the  Founder  of  Buddhism.  §  4.  Leading  Doctrines  of  Buddhism. 
§  5.  The  Spirit  of  Buddhism  Rational  and  Humane.  §  6.  Buddhism 
as  a  Religion.  §  7.  Karma  and  Nirvana.  §  8.  Good  and  Evil  of 
Buddhism.  §  9.  Relation  of  Buddhism  to  Christianity. 

§  1.  Buddhism,  in  its  Forms,  resembles  Bomanism  ;  in  its 

Spirit,  Protestantism. 

OUST  first  becoming  acquainted  with  the  mighty  and 
ancient  religion  of  Buddha,  one  may  be  tempted  to 
deny  the  correctness  of  this  title,  “  The  Protestantism  of 
the  East.”  One  might  say,  “Why  not  rather  the  Bo¬ 
manism  of  the  East  ?”  Eor  so  numerous  are  the  resem¬ 
blances  between  the  customs  of  this  system  and  those 
of  the  Romish  Church,  that  the  first  Catholic  missionaries 
who  encountered  the  priests  of  Buddha  were  confounded, 
and  thought  that  Satan  had  been  mocking  their  sacred 
rites.  Father  Bury,  a  Portuguese  missionary,*  when  he 
beheld  the  Chinese  bonzes  tonsured,  using  rosaries,  pray¬ 
ing  in  an  unknown  tongue,  and  kneeling  before  images, 
exclaimed  in  astonishment :  “  There  is  not  a  piece  of 
dress,  not  a  sacerdotal  function,  not  a  ceremony  of  the 
court  of  Rome,  which  the  Devil  has  not  copied  in  this 
country.”  Mr.  Davis  (Transactions  of  the  Royal  Asiatic 
Society,  II.  491)  speaks  of  “the  celibacy  of  the  Buddhist 
clergy,  and  the  monastic  life  of  the  societies  of  both 
sexes  ;  to  which  might  be  added  their  strings  of  beads, 
their  manner  of  chanting  prayers,  their  incense,  and  their 
candles.”  Mr.  Medhurst  (“  China,”  London,  1857)  men- 

*  Kesson,  “The  Cross  and  the  Dragon”  (London,  1854),  quoted  by 
Hardwick. 


140 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


tions  the  image  of  a  virgin,  called  the  “  queen  of  heaven,” 
having  an  infant  in  her  arms,  and  holding  a  cross.  Con¬ 
fession  of  sins  is  regularly  practised.  Father  Hue,  in  his 
“  Kecollections  of  a  Journey  in  Tartary,  Thibet,  and  China,” 
(Hazlitt’s  translation),  says :  “  The  cross,  the  mitre,  the 
dalmatica,  the  cope,  which  the  grand  lamas  wear  on 
their  journeys,  or  when  they  are  performing  some  cere¬ 
mony  out  of  the  temple,  —  the  service  with  double  choirs, 
the  psalmody,  the  exorcisms,  the  censer  suspended  from 
five  chains,  and  which  you  can  open  or  close  at  pleasure, 
—  the  benedictions  given  by  the  lamas  by  extending  the 
right  hand  over  the  heads  of  the  faithful,  —  the  chaplet, 
ecclesiastical  celibacy,  religious  retirement,  the  worship 
of  the  saints,  the  fasts,  the  processions,  the  litanies,  the 
holy  water,  —  all  these  are  analogies  between  the  Buddh¬ 
ists  and  ourselves.”  And  in  Thibet  there  is  also  a 
Dalai  Lama,  who  is  a  sort  of  Buddhist  pope.  Such  nu¬ 
merous  and  striking  analogies  are  difficult  to  explain. 
After  the  simple  theory  “  que  le  diable  y  etait  pour  beau- 
coup  ”  was  abandoned,  the  next  opinion  held  by  the  Jesuit  . 
missionaries  was  that  the  Buddhists  had  copied  these 
customs  from  ISTestorian  missionaries,  who  are  known  to 
have  penetrated  early  even  as  far  as  China*  But  a  serious 
objection  to  this  theory  is  that  Buddhism  is  at  least  five 
hundred  years  older  than  Christianity,  and  that  many 
of  these  striking  resemblances  belong  to  its  earliest  pe¬ 
riod.  Thus  Wilson  (Hindu  Drama)  has  translated  plays 
written  before  the  Christian  era,  in  which  Buddhist 
monks  appear  as  mendicants.  The  worship  of  relics  is 
quite  as  ancient.  Fergusson  •)*  describes  topes,  or  shrines 
for  relics,  of  very  great  antiquity,  existing  in  India,  Cey¬ 
lon,  Birmah,  and  Java.  Many  of  them  belong  to  the 
age  of  Asoka,  the  great  Buddhist  emperor,  who  ruled  all 
India  B.  c.  250,  and  in  whose  reign  Buddhism  became 
the  religion  of  the  state,  and  held  its  third  (Ecumenical 
Council. 

The  ancient  Buddhist  architecture  is  very  singular,  and 
often  very  beautiful.  It  consists  of  topes,  rock-cut  tem- 

*  See  Note  to  Chap.  II.  on  the  Nestorian  inscription  in  China. 

+  Illustrated  Handbook  of  Architecture,  p.  67. 


BUDDHISM. 


141 


pies,  and  monasteries.  Some  of  the  topes  are  monolithic 
columns,  more  than  forty  feet  high,  with  ornamented  capi¬ 
tals.  Some  are  immense  domes  of  brick  and  stone,  con¬ 
taining  sacred  relics.  The  tooth  of  Buddha  was  once 
preserved  in  a  magnificent  shrine  in  India,  hut  was  con¬ 
veyed  to  Ceyion  a.  d.  311,  where  it  still  remains  an  ob¬ 
ject  of  universal  reverence.  It  is  a  piece  of  ivory  or 
bone  two  inches  long,  and  is  kept  in  six  cases,  the  largest 
of  which,  of  solid  silver,  is  five  feet  high.  The  other 
cases  are  inlaid  with  rubies  and  precious  stones.*  Be¬ 
sides  this,  Ceylon  possesses  the  “  left  collar-bone  relic,” 
contained  in  a  bell-shaped  tope,  fifty  feet  high,  and  the 
thorax  bone,  which  was  placed  in  a  tope  built  by  a  Hin¬ 
doo  Baja,  B.  c.  250,  beside  which  two  others  were  subse¬ 
quently  erected,  the  last  being  eighty  cubits  high.  The 
Sanchi  tope,  the  finest  in  India, +  is  a  solid  dome  of  stone, 
one  hundred  and  six  feet  in  diameter  and  forty-two  feet 
high,  with  a  basement  and  terrace,  having  a  colonnade, 
now  fallen,  of  sixty  pillars,  with  richly  carved  stone  rail¬ 
ing  and  gateway. 

The  rock-cut  temples  of  the  Buddhists  are  very  ancient, 
and  are  numerous  in  India.  Mr.  Fergusson,  who  has  made 
a  special  personal  study  of  these  monuments,  believes 
that  more  than  nine  hundred  still  remain,  most  of  them 
within  the  Bombay  presidency.  Of  these,  many  date 
back  two  centuries  before  our  era.  In  form  they  singu¬ 
larly  resemble  the  earliest  Boman  Catholic  churches. 
Excavated  out  of  the  solid  rock,  they  have  a  nave  and 
side  aisles,  terminating  in  an  apse  or  semi-dome,  round 
which  the  aisle  is  carried.  One  at  Ivarli,  built  in  this 
manner,  is  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  feet  long  and 
forty-five  wide,  with  fifteen  richly  carved  columns  on 
each  side,  separating  the  nave  from  the  aisles.  The  fa¬ 
cade  of  this  temple  is  also  richly  ornamented,  and  has  a 
great  open  window  for  lighting  the  interior,  beneath  an 
elegant  gallery  or  rood-loft. 

The  Buddhist  rock-cut  monasteries  in  India  are  also 
numerous,  though  long  since  deserted.  Between  seven 

*  Hardy,  Eastern  Monachism,  p.  224.  Fergusson,  p.  9. 

*f  Fergusson,  p.  10.  Cunningham,  Bhilsa  Topes  of  India. 


142 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


and  eight  hundred  are  known  to  exist,  most  of  them 
having  been  excavated  between  B.  c.  200  and  A,  D.  500. 
Buddhist  monks,  then  as  now,  took  the  same  three  vows 
of  celibacy,  poverty,  and  obedience,  which  are  taken 
by  the  members  of  all  the  Catholic  orders.  In  addi¬ 
tion  to  this,  all  the  Buddhist  priests  are  mendicants. 
They  shave  their  heads,  wear  a  friar’s  robe  tied  round  the 
waist  with  a  rope,  and  beg  from  house  to  house,  carrying 
tlieir  wTooden  bowl  in  which  to  receive  boiled  rice.  The  old 
monasteries  of  India  contain  chapels  and  cells  for  the 
monks.  The  largest,  however,  had  accommodation  for 
only  thirty  or  forty ;  while  at  the  present  time  a  single 
monastery  in  Thibet,  visited  by  MM.  Hue  and  Gabet  (the 
lamasery  of  Kounboum),  is  occupied  by  four  thousand 
lamas.  The  structure  of  these  monasteries  shows  clearly 
that  the  monkish  system  of  the  Buddhists  is  far  too  an¬ 
cient  to  have  been  copied  from  the  Christians. 

Is,  then,  the  reverse  true  ?  Did  the  Catholic  Christians 
derive  their  monastic  institutions,  their  bells,  their  rosary, 
their  tonsure,  their  incense,  their  mitre  and  cope,  their 
worship  of  relics,  their  custom  of  confession,  etc.,  from  the 
Buddhists  ?  Such  is  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Prinsep  (Thibet, 
Tartary,  and  Mongolia,  1852)  and  of  Lassen  (Indische 
Alterthumskunde).  But,  in  reply  to  this  view,  Mr.  Hard- 
wicke  objects  that  we  do  not  find  in  history  any  trace  of 
such  an  influence.  Possibly,  therefore,  the  resemblances 
may  be  the  result  of  common  human  tendencies  working 
out,  independently,  the  same  results.  If,  however,  it  is 
necessary  to  assume  that  either  religion  copied  from  the 
other,  the  Buddhists  may  claim  originality,  on  the  ground 
of  antiquity. 

But,  however  this  may  be,  the  question  returns,  Why 
call  Buddhism  the  Protestantism  of  the  East,  when  all  its 
external  features  so  much  resemble  those  of  the  Koman 
Catholic  Church  ? 

We  answer:  Because  deeper  and  more  essential  rela¬ 
tions  connect  Brahmanism  with  the  Bomish  Church,  and 
the  Buddhist  system  with  Protestantism.  The  human 
mind  in  Asia  went  through  the  same  course  of  experi¬ 
ence,  afterward  repeated  in  Europe.  It  protested,  in  the 


BUDDHISM. 


143 


interest  of  humanity,  against  the  oppression  of  a  priestly 
caste.  Brahmanism,  like  the  Church  of  Rome,  established 
a  system  of  sacramental  salvation*  in  the  hands  of  a  sacred 
order.  Buddhism,  like  Protestantism,  revolted,  and  estab¬ 
lished  a  doctrine  of  individual  salvation  based  on  personal 
character.  Brahmanism,  like  the  Church  of  Rome,  teaches 
an  exclusive  spiritualism,  glorifying  penances  and  martyr¬ 
dom,  and  considers  the  body  the  enemy  of  the  soul.  But 
Buddhism  and  Protestantism  accept  nature  and  its  laws, 
and  make  a  religion  of  humanity  as  well  as  of  devotion. 
To  such  broad  statements  numerous  exceptions  may 
doubtless  be  always  found,  but  these  are  the  large  lines  of 
distinction. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  and  Brahmanism  place 
the  essence  of  religion  in  sacrifices.  Each  is  eminently 
a  sacrificial  system.  The  daily  sacrifice  of  the  mass  is  the 
central  feature  of  the  Romish  Church.  So  Brahmanism  is 
a  system  of  sacrifices.  But  Protestantism  and  Buddhism 
save  the  soul  by  teaching.  In  the  Church  of  Rome  the 
sermon  is  subordinate  to  the  mass ;  in  Protestantism  and 
in  Buddhism  sermons  are  the  main  instruments  by  which 
souls  are  saved.  Brahmanism  is  a  system  of  inflexible 
castes ;  the  priestly  caste  is  made  distinct  and  supreme ; 
and  in  Romanism  the  priesthood  almost  constitutes  the 
church.  In  Buddhism  and  Protestantism  the  laity  re¬ 
gain  their  rights.  Therefore,  notwithstanding  the  external 
resemblance  of  Buddhist  rites  and  ceremonies  to  those  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  internal  resemblance  is 
to  Protestantism.  Buddhism  in  Asia,  like  Protestantism 
in  Europe,  is  a  revolt  of  nature  against  spirit,  of  humanity 
against  caste,  of  individual  freedom  against  the  despotism 
of  an  order,  of  salvation  by  faith  against  salvation  by 
sacraments.  And  as  all  revolts  are  apt  to  go  too  far,  so 
it  has  been  with  Buddhism.  In  asserting  the  rights  of 
nature  against  the  tyranny  of  spirit,  Buddhism  has  lost 
God.  There  is  in  Buddhism  neither  creation  nor  Creator. 
Its  tracts  say  :  “  The  rising  of  the  world  is  a  natural  case.” 
“  Its  rising  and  perishing  are  by  nature  itself.”  “  It  is 
natural  that  the  world  should  rise  and  perish.”  *  While 


*  Upham,  Sacred  and  Historical  Books  of  Ceylon. 


144 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


in  Brahmanism  absolute  spirit  is  the  only  reality,  and 
this  world  is  an  illusion,  the  Buddhists  know  only  this 
world,  and  the  eternal  world  is  so  entirely  unknown  as  to 
be  equivalent  to  nullity.  But  yet,  as  no  revolt,  however 
radical,  gives  up  all  its  antecedents,  so  Buddhism  has  the 
same  aim  as  Brahmanism,  namely,  to  escape  from  the 
vicissitudes  of  time  into  the  absolute  rest  of  eternity. 
They  agree  as  to  the  object  of  existence  ;  they  differ  as  to 
the  method  of  reaching  it.  The  Brahman  and  the  Roman 
Catholic  think  that  eternal  rest  is  to  be  obtained  by  intel¬ 
lectual  submission,  by  passive  reception  of  what  is  taught 
us  and  done  for  us  by  others  :  the  Buddhist  and  Protest¬ 
ant  believe  it  must  be  accomplished  by  an  intelligent  and 
free  obedience  to  Divine  laws.  Mr.  Hodgson,  who  has 
long  studied  the  features  of  this  religion  in  Nepaul,  says  : 
“  The  one  infallible  diagnostic  of  Buddhism  is  a  belief  in 
the  infinite  capacity  of  the  human  intellect.”  The  name 
of  Buddha  means  the  Intelligent  One,  or  the  one  who  is 
wide  awake.  And  herein  also  is  another  resemblance  to 
Protestantism,  which  emphasizes  so  strongly  the  value  of 
free  thought  and  the  seeking  after  truth.  In  Judaism  we 
find  two  spiritual  powers,  —  the  prophet  and  the  priest. 
The  priest  is  the  organ  of  the  pardoning  and  saving  love 
of  God ;  the  prophet,  of  his  inspiring  truth.  In  the 
European  Reformation,  the  prophet  revolting  against  the 
priest  founded  Protestantism ;  in  the  Asiatic  Reformation 
he  founded  Buddhism.  Finally,  Brahmanism  and  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  are  more  religious ;  Buddhism 
and  Protestant  Christianity,  more  moral.  Such,  sketched 
in  broad  outline,  is  the  justification  for  the  title  of  this 
chapter ;  but  we  shall  be  more  convinced  of  its  accuracy 
after  looking  more  closely  into  the  resemblances  above 
indicated  between  the  religious  ceremonies  of  the  East 
and  West. 

These  resemblances  are  chiefly  between  the  Buddhists 
and  the  monastic  orders  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  How  it 
is  a  fact,  but  one  which  has  never  been  sufficiently  noticed, 
that  the  whole  monastic  system  of  Rome  is  based  on  a 
principle  foreign  to  the  essential  ideas  of  that  church. 
The  fundamental  doctrine  of  Rome  is  that  of  salvation  by 


BUDDHISM. 


145 


sacraments.  This  alone  justifies  its  maxim,  that  “  out  of 
communion  with  the  Church  there  is  no  salvation/’  The 
sacrament  of  Baptism  regenerates  the  soul;  the  sacra¬ 
ment  of  Penance  purifies  it  from  mortal  sin ;  the  sacra¬ 
ment  of  the  Eucharist  renews  its  life ;  and  that  of  Holy 
Orders  qualifies  the  priest  for  administering  these  and  the 
other  sacraments.  But  if  the  soul  is  saved  by  sacraments, 
duly  administered  and  received,  why  go  into  a  religious 
order  to  save  the  soul  ?  Why  seek  by  special  acts  of 
piety,  self-denial,  and  separation  from  the  world  that 
which  comes  sufficiently  through  the  usual  sacraments 
of  the  church  ?  The  more  we  examine  this  subject,  the 
more  we  shall  see  that  the  whole  monastic  system  of  the 
Church  of  Borne  is  an  included  Protestantism,  or  a  Protest¬ 
antism  within  the  church. 

Many  of  the  reformers  before  the  Beformation  were 
monks.  Savonarola,  St.  Bernard,  Luther  himself,  were 
monks.  From  the  monasteries  came  many  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Beformation.  The  Protestant  element  in  the 
Bomish  Church  was  shut  up  in  monasteries  during  many 
centuries,  and  remained  there  as  a  foreign  substance,  an 
alien  element  included  in  the  vast  body.  When  a  bullet, 
or  other  foreign  substance,  is  lodged  in  the  flesh,  the  vital 
powers  go  to  work  and  build  up  a  little  wall  around  it,  and 
shut  it  in.  So  when  Catholics  came  who  were  not  satis¬ 
fied  with  a  merely  sacramental  salvation,  and  longed  for  a 
higher  life,  the  sagacity  of  the  Church  put  them  together 
in  convents,  and  kept  them  by  themselves,  where  they 
could  do  no  harm.  One  of  the  curious  homologons  of 
history  is  this  repetition  in  Europe  of  the  course  of  events 
in  Asia.  Buddhism  was,  for  many  centuries,  tolerated  in 

India  in  the  same  wav.  It  took  the  form  of  a  monasti- 

*/ 

cism  included  in  Brahmanism,  and  remained  a  part  of 
the  Hindoo  religion.  And  so,  when  the  crisis  came  and 
the  conflict  began,  this  Hindoo  Protestantism  maintained 
itself  for  a  long  time  in  India,  as  Lutheranism  continued 
for  a  century  in  Italy,  Spain,  and  Austria.  But  it  was 
at  last  driven  out  of  its  birthplace,  as  Protestantism  was 
driven  from  Italy  and  Spain ;  and  now  only  the  ruins  of 

its  topes,  its  temples,  and  its  monasteries  remain  to  show/ 

7  J 


146 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


how  extensive  was  its  former  influence  in  the  midst  of 
Brahmanism. 

§  2.  Extent  of  Buddhism .  Its  Scriptures. 

Yet,  though  expelled  from  India,  and  unable  to  main¬ 
tain  its  control  over  any  Aryan  race,  it  has  exhibited  a 
powerful  propagandist  element,  and  so  has  converted 
to  its  creed  the  majority  of  the  Mongol  nations.  It  em¬ 
braces  nearly  or  quite  (for  statistics  here  are  only  guess¬ 
work)*  three  hundred  millions  of  human  beings.  It  is 
the  popular  religion  of  China ;  the  state  religion  of  Thibet, 
and  of  the  Birman  Empire ;  it  is  the  religion  of  Japan, 
Siam,  Anam,  Assam,  Nepaul,  Ceylon,  in  short,  of  nearly 
the  whole  of  Eastern  Asia. 

Concerning  this  vast  religion  we  have  had,  until  re¬ 
cently,  very  few  means  of  information.  But,  during  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century,  so  many  sources  have  been 
opened,  that  at  present  we  can  easily  study  it  in  its 


*  Here  are  a  few  of  the  guesses  :  — 

Christians 
Buddhist  . 

Cunningham,  Bhilsa  Topes. 

•  •••••• 

•  •••••• 

270  millions. 
222 

Christians 

Jews  . 

Mohammedans 
Brahmans  . 
Buddhists 

Hassel,  Penny  Cyclopaedia. 

•  •••••• 

•  •••••# 

•  •••••• 

•  •••••• 

120  millions. 
4 

252  “ 

111 

315 

Christians  . 
Jews 

Brahmans  . 
Mohammedans 
Buddhists  . 

Johnston,  Physical  Atlas. 

*•••••• 

••••••• 

301  millions. 
5 

133  “ 

110  “ 

245  “ 

Christians 

Mohammedans 

Jews 

Buddhists  . 

Perkins,  Johnson's  American  Atlas. 

•  •  •  •  s  i  •  • 

• 

••••••• 

••••••• 

369  millions. 
160  “ 

6 

320  “ 

Buddhists 

New  American  Cyclopaedia. 

•••••#* 

290  millions. 

And  Professor  Newmann  estimates  the  number  of  Buddhists  at  369 
.millions. 


BUDDHISM. 


147 


original  features  and  its  subsequent  development.  The 
sacred  books  of  this  religion  have  been  preserved  inde¬ 
pendently,  in  Ceylon,  Nepaul,  China,  and  Thibet.  Mr.  G-. 
Tumour,  Mr.  Georgely,  and  Mr.  R.  Spence  Hardy  are  our 
chief  authorities  in  regard  to  the  Pitikas,  or  the  Scriptures 
in  the  Pali  language,  preserved  in  Ceylon.  Mr.  Hodgson 
has  collected  and  studied  the  Sanskrit  Scriptures,  found 
in  Nepaul.  In  1825  he  transmitted  to  the  Asiatic  Society 
in  Bengal  sixty  works  in  Sanskrit,  and  two  hundred  and 
fifty  in  the  language  of  Thibet.  M.  Csoma,  an  Hungarian 
physician,  discovered  in  the  Buddhist  monasteries  of 
Thibet  an  immense  collection  of  sacred  books,  which 
had  been  translated  from  the  Sanskrit  works  previously 
studied  by  Mr.  Hodgson.  In  1829  M.  Schmidt  found  the 
same  works  in  the  Mongolian.  M.  Stanislas  Julien,  an 
eminent  student  of  the  Chinese,  has  also  translated  works 
on  Buddhism  from  that  language,  which  ascend  to  the 
year  76  of  our  era.*  More  recently  inscriptions  cut  upon 
rocks,  columns,  and  other  monuments  in  Northern  India, 
have  been  transcribed  and  translated.  Mr.  J ames  Prinsep 
deciphered  these  inscriptions,  and  found  them  to  be  in  the 
ancient  language  of  the  province  of  Magadha  where  Buddh¬ 
ism  first  appeared.  They  contain  the  decrees  of  a  king, 
or  raja,  named  Pyadasi,  whom  Mr.  Tumour  has  shown  to 
be  the  same  as  the  famous  Asoka,  before  alluded  to. 
This  king  appears  to  have  come  to  the  throne  somewhere 
between  B.  c.  319  and  b.  c.  260.  Similar  inscriptions 
have  been  discovered  throughout  India,  proving  to  the 
satisfaction  of  such  scholars  as  Burnouf,  Prinsep,  Tumour, 
Lassen,  Weber,  Max  Muller,  and  Saint-Hilaire,  that  Buddh¬ 
ism  had  become  almost  the  state  religion  of  India,  in  the 
fourth  century  before  Christ.*}* 

*  Le  Bouddha  et  sa  Religion.  Par  J.  Barthelemy  Saint-Hilaire.  — - 
Eastern  Monachism.  By  Spence  Hardy.  —  Burnouf,  Introduction,  etc. 
—  Koeppen,  Die  Religion  des  Buddha. 

+  The  works  from  which  this  chapter  has  been  mostly  drawn  are 
these  :  —  Introduction  a  l’Histoire  du  Buddhisme  indien.  Par  E.  Bur¬ 
nouf.  (Paris,  1844.)  Le  Bouddha  et  sa  Religion.  Par  J.  Barthelemy 
Saint-Hilaire.  (Paris,  1860.)  Eastern  Monachism.  By  R.  Spence  Hardy. 
(London,  1850.)  A  Manual  of  Buddhism  in  its  Modern  Development. 
By  R.  Spence  Hardy.  (London,  1853.)  Die  Religion  des  Buddha.  Yon 
Karl  F.  Koeppen.  (Berlin,  1857.)  Indische  Alterthumskunde.  Yon 


148 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


§  3.  Sakya-muni,  the  Founder  of  Buddhism. 

Nortli  of  Central  India  and  of  the  kingdom  of  Oude, 
near  the  borders  of  Nepaul,  there  reigned,  at  the  end 
of  the  seventh  century  before  Christ,  a  wise  and  good 
king,  in  his  capital  city,  Kapilavastu.*  He  was  one  of 
the  last  of  the  great  Solar  race,  celebrated  in  the  ancient 
epics  of  India.  His  wife,  named  Maya  because  of  her 
great  beauty,  became  the  mother  of  a  prince,  who  was 
named  Siddartha,  and  afterward  known  as  the  Buddlia.-f* 
She  died  seven  days  after  his  birth,  and  the  child  was 
brought  up  by  his  maternal  aunt.  The  young  prince  dis¬ 
tinguished  himself  by  his  personal  and  intellectual  qual¬ 
ities,  but  still  more  by  his  early  piety.  It  appears  from 
the  laws  of  Manu  that  it  was  not  unusual,  in  the  earliest 
periods  of  Brahmanism,  for  those  seeking  a  superior  piety 
to  turn  hermits,  and  to  live  alone  in  the  forest,  engaged 
in  acts  of  prayer,  meditation,  abstinence,  and  the  study 
of  the  Yedas.  This  practice,  however,  seems  to  have  been 
confined  to  the  Brahmans.  It  was,  therefore,  a  grief  to 
the  king,  when  his  son,  in  the  flower  of  his  youth  and 

Christian  Lassen.  (Bonn,  1852.)  Der  Buddhismus,  Seine  Dogmen,  Ges- 
chichte,  und  Literatur.  Yon  W.  Wassiljew.  (St.  Petersburg,  I860.) 
Ueber  Buddha’s  Todesjahr.  Yon  N.  L.  Westergaard.  (Breslau,  1862.) 
Gott  in  der  Geschichte.  Yon  C.  C.  J.  Bunsen.  (Leipzig,  1858.)  The 
Bhilsa  Topes,  or  Buddhist  Monuments  of  Central  India.  By  A.  Cunning¬ 
ham.  (London,  1854.)  Buddhism  in  Thibet.  By  Emil  Schlagintweit. 
(Leipzig  and  London,  1863.)  Travels  in  Eastern  countries  by  Hue  and 
Gabet,  and  others.  References  to  Buddhism  in  the  writings  of  Max 
Muller,  Maurice,  Baur,  Hardwick,  Fergusson,  Pritchard,  Wilson,  Cole- 
brooke,  etc. 

*  At  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  of  our  era  a  Chinese  Buddhist 
made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  birthplace  of  Buddha,  and  found  the  city  in 
ruins.  Another  Chinese  pilgrim  visited  it  A.  d.  632,  and  was  able  to 
trace  the  remains  of  the  ruined  palace,  and  saw  a  room  which  had  been 
occupied  by  Buddha.  These  travels  have  been  translated  from  the  Chi¬ 
nese  by  M.  Stanislas  Julien. 

+  Buddha  is  not  a  proper  name,  but  an  official  title.  Just  as  we  ought 
not  to  say  Jesus  Christ,  but  always  Jesus  the  Christ,  so  we  should  say 
Siddartha  the  Buddha,  or  Sakya-muni  the  Buddha,  or  Gautama ;  the 
Buddha.  The  first  of  these  names,  Siddartha  (contracted  from  Sarvdrtha- 
siddha)  was  the  baptismal  name  given  by  his  father,  and  means  “The 
fulfilment  of  every  wish.”  Sakya-muni  means  “The  hermit  of  the  race 
of  Sakya,”  —  Sakya  being  the  ancestral  name  of  his  father’s  race.  The 
name  Gautama  is  stated  by  Koeppen  to  be  “der  priesterliche  Beiname 
des  Geschlechts  der  Sakya,”  — whatever  that  may  mean. 


BUDDHISM. 


149 


highly  accomplished  in  every  kingly  faculty  of  body  and 
mind,  began  to  turn  his  thoughts  toward  the  life  of  an 
anchorite.  In  fact,  the  young  Siddartha  seems  to  have 
gone  through  that  deep  experience  out  of  which  the  great 
prophets  of  mankind  have  always  been  born.  The  evils 
of  the  world  pressed  on  his  heart  and  brain ;  the  very  air 
seemed  full  of  mortality;  all  things  were  passing  away. 
Was  anything  permanent  ?  anything  stable  ?  Nothing  v 
but  truth  ;  only  the  absolute,  eternal  law  of  things.  “  Let 
me  see  that/’  said  he,  “  and  I  can  give  lasting  peace  to 
mankind.  Then  shall  I  become  their  deliverer.”  So,  in 
opposition  to  the  strong  entreaties  of  his  father,  wife,  and 
friends,  he  left  the  palace  one  night,  and  exchanged  the 
position  of  a  prince  for  that  of  a  mendicant.  “  I  will 
never  return  to  the  palace,”  said  he,  “  till  I  have  attained 
to  the  sight  of  the  divine  law,  and  so  become  Buddha.”  * 

He  first  visited  the  Brahmans,  and  listened  to  their  doc¬ 
trines,  but  found  no  satisfaction  therein.  The  wisest 
among  them  could  not  teach  him  true  peace,  —  that  pro¬ 
found  inward  rest,  which  was  already  called  Nirvana.  He 
was  twenty-nine  years  old.  Although  disapproving  of  the 
Bralimanic  austerities  as  an  end,  he  practised  them  dur¬ 
ing  six  years,  in  order  to  subdue  the  senses.  He  then 
became  satisfied  that  the  path  to  perfection  did  not  lie 
that  way.  He  therefore  resumed  his  former  diet  and  a 
more  comfortable  mode  of  life,  and  so  lost  many  disciples 
who  had  been  attracted  by  his  amazing  austerity.  Alone 
in  his  hermitage,  he  came  at  last  to  that  solid  conviction, 
that  knowledge  never  to  be  shaken,  of  the  laws  of  things, 
which  had  seemed  to  him  the  only  foundation  of  a  truly 
free  life.  The  spot  where,  after  a  week  of  constant  med¬ 
itation,  he  at  last  arrived  at  this  beatific  vision,  became 
one  of  the  most  sacred  places  in  India.  He  was  seated 
under  a  tree,  his  face  to  the  east,  not  having  moved  for  a 
day  and  night,  when  he  attained  the  triple  science,  which 
was  to  rescue  mankind  from  its  woes.  Twelve  hundred 
years  after  the  death  of  the  Buddha,  a  Chinese  pilgrim 
wras  shown  what  then  passed  for  the  sacred  tree.  It  was 

*  The  Sanskrit  root,  whence  the  English  “bode”  and  “forebode,” 
means  “  to  know.” 


150 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


surrounded  by  high  brick  walls,  with  an  opening  to  the 
east,  and  near  it  stood  many  topes  and  monasteries.  In 
the  opinion  of  M.  Saint-Hilaire,  these  ruins,  and  the  lo¬ 
cality  of  the  tree,  may  yet  be  rediscovered.  The  spot 
deserves  to  be  sought  for,  since  there  began  a  movement 
which  has,  on  the  whole,  been  a  source  of  happiness  and 
improvement  to  immense  multitudes  of  human  beings, 
during  twenty-four  centuries. 

Having  attained  this  inward  certainty  of  vision,  he  de¬ 
cided  to  teach  the  world  his  truth.  He  knew  well  what 
it  would  bring  him,  —  what  opposition,  insult,  neglect, 
scorn.  But  he  thought  of  three  classes  of  men:  those 
who  were  already  on  the  way  to  the  truth,  and  did  not 
need  him ;  those  who  were  fixed  in  error,  and  whom  he 
could  not  help ;  and  the  poor  doubters,  uncertain  of  their 
way.  It  wTas  to  help  these  last,  the  doubters,  that  the 
Buddha  went  forth  to  preach.  On  his  way  to  the  holy 
city  of  India,  Benares,  a  serious  difficulty  arrested  him 
at  the  Ganges,  namely,  his  having  no  money  to  pay  the 
boatman  for  his  passage.  At  Benares  he  made  his  first 
converts,  “  turning  the  wheel  of  the  law  ”  for  the  first 
time.  His  discourses  are  contained  in  the  sacred  books 
of  the  Buddhists.  He  converted  great  numbers,  his  father 
among  the  rest,  but  met  with  fierce  opposition  from  the 
Hindoo  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  the  leading  Brahmans.  So 
he  lived  and  taught,  and  died  at  the  age  of  eighty  years. 

Naturally,  as  soon  as  the  prophet  was  dead  he  became 
very  precious  in  all  eyes.  His  body  was  burned  with 
much  pomp,  and  great  contention  arose  for  the  uncon- 
sumed  fragments  of  bone.  At  last  they  were  divided 
into  eight  parts,  and  a  tope  was  erected,  by  each  of  the 
eight  fortunate  possessors,  over  such  relics  as  had  fallen  to 
him.  The  ancient  books  of  the  North  and  South  agree  as 
to  the  places  where  the  topes  wrere  built,  and  no  Boman 
Catholic  relics  are  so  well  authenticated.  The  Buddha, 
who  believed  with  Jesus  that  “  the  flesh  profitetli  nothing,” 
and  that  “the  word  is  spirit  and  life,”  would  probably 
have  been  the  first  to  condemn  this  idolatry.  But  fetich- 
worship  lingers  in  the  purest  religions. 

The  time  of  the  death  of  Sakya-muni,  like  most  Orient- 


BUDDHISM. 


151 


al  dates,  is  uncertain.  The  Northern  Buddhists,  in  Thi¬ 
bet,  Nepaul,  etc.,  vary  greatly  among  themselves.  The 
Chinese  Buddhists  are  not  more  certain.  Lassen,  there¬ 
fore,  with  most  of  the  scholars,  accepts  as  authentic  the 
period  upon  which  all  the  authorities  of  the  South,  espe¬ 
cially  of  Ceylon,  agree,  which  is  b.  c.  543.  Lately  Wes- 
tergaard  has  mitten  a  monograph  on  the  subject,  in  which, 
by  a  labored  argument,  he  places  the  date  about  two  hun¬ 
dred  years  later.  Whether  he  will  convince  his  brother 
savans  remains  to  be  seen. 

Immediately  after  the  death  of  Sakya-muni  a  general 
council  of  his  most  eminent  disciples  was  called,  to  fix  the 
doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  church.  The  legend  runs  that 
three  of  the  disciples  were  selected  to  recite  from  memory 
what  the  sage  had  taught.  The  first  was  appointed  to 
repeat  his  teaching  upon  discipline;  “for  discipline,” 
said  they,  “is  the  soul  of  the  law.”  Whereupon  Upali, 
mounting  the  pulpit,  repeated  all  of  the  precepts  concern¬ 
ing  morals  and  the  ritual.  Then  Ananda  was  chosen  to 
give  his  master’s  discourses  concerning  faith  or  doctrine. 
Finally,  Kasyapa  announced  the  philosophy  and  meta¬ 
physics  of  the  system.  The  council  sat  during  seven 
months,  and  the  threefold  division  of  the  sacred  Scrip¬ 
tures  of  Buddhism  was  the  result  of  their  work;  for 
Sakya-muni  wrote  nothing  himself.  He  taught  by  con¬ 
versation  only. 

The  second  general  council  was  called  to  correct  certain 
abuses  which  had  begun  to  creep  in.  It  was  held  about  a 
hundred  years  after  the  teacher’s  death.  A  great  frater¬ 
nity  of  monks  proposed  to  relax  the  conventual  discipline, 
by  allowing  greater  liberty  in  taking  food,  in  drinking  in¬ 
toxicating  liquor,  and  taking  gold  and  silver  if  offered  in 
alms.  The  schismatic  monks  were  degraded,  to  the 
number  of  ten  thousand,  but  formed  a  new  sect.  The 
third  council,  held  during  the  reign  of  the  great  Buddhist 
Emperor  Asoka,  was  called  on  account  of  heretics,  who,  to 
the  number  of  sixty  thousand,  were  degraded  and  ex¬ 
pelled.  After  this,  missionaries  were  despatched  to  preach 
the  word  in  different  lands.  The  names  and  success  of 
these  missionaries  are  recorded  in  the  Mahawanso,  or 


152 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Sacred  History,  translated  by  Mr.  George  Tumour  from 
the  Singhalese.  But  what  is  remarkable  is,  that  the  relics 
of  some  of  them  have  been  recently  found  in  the  Sanchi 
topes,  and  in  other  sacred  buildings,  contained  in  caskets, 
writh  their  names  inscribed  on  them.  These  inscribed 
names  correspond  with  those  given  to  the  same  mission¬ 
aries  in  the  historical  books  of  Ceylon.  For  example, 
according  to  the  Mahawanso,  two  missionaries,  one  named 
Kassapo  (or  Kasyapa),  and  the  other  called  Majjhima  (or 
Madhyama),  went  to  preach  in  the  region  of  the  Him¬ 
alayan  Mountains.  They  journeyed,  preached,  suffered, 
and  toiled,  side  by  side,  so  the  ancient  history  informs  us, 
—  a  history  composed  in  Ceylon  in  the  fifth  century  of 
our  era,  with  the  aid  of  works  still  more  ancient ;  *  and 
now,  when  the  second  Sanchi  tope  was  opened  in  1851, 
by  Major  Cunningham,  the  relics  of  these  very  mission¬ 
aries  were  discovered.-f*  The  tope  was  perfect  in  1819, 
when  visited  by  Captain  Fell, —  “not  a  stone  fallen.” 
And  though  afterward  injured,  in  1822,  by  some  amateur 
relic-hunters,  its  contents  remained  intact.  It  is  a  solid 
hemisphere,  built  of  rough  stones  without  mortar,  thirty- 
nine  feet  in  diameter ;  it  has  a  basement  six  feet  high, 
projecting  all  around  five  feet,  and  so  making  a  terrace. 
It  is  surrounded  by  a  stone  railing,  with  carved  figures. 
In  the  centre  of  this  tope  was  found  a  small  chamber, 
made  of  six  stones,  containing  the  relic-box  of  white 
sandstone,  about  ten  inches  square.  Inside  this  were 
four  caskets  of  steatite  (a  sacred  stone  among  the  Buddh¬ 
ists),  each  containing  small  portions  of  burnt  human 
bone.  On  the  outside  lid  of  one  of  these  boxes  was  this 
inscription :  “  Belies  of  the  emancipated  Kasyapa  Gotra, 
missionary  to  the  whole  Hemawanta.”  And  on  the  inside 
of  the  lid  was  carved :  “  Belies  of  the  emancipated  Mad¬ 
hyama.”  These  relics,  with  those  of  eight  other  leading 
men  of  the  Buddhist  Church,  had  rested  in  this  monu¬ 
ment  since  the  age  of  Asoka,  and  cannot  have  been  placed 
there  later  than  b.  c.  220. 

The  missionary  spirit  displayed  by  Buddhism  distin¬ 
guishes  it  from  all  other  religions  which  preceded  Christian- 

+  Bliilsa  Topes. 


*  Saint-Hilaire. 


BUDDHISM. 


153 


ity.  The  religion  of  Confucius  never  attempted  to  make 
converts  outside  of  China.  Brahmanism  never  went 
beyond  India.  The  system  of  Zoroaster  was  a  Persian 
religion ;  that  of  Egypt  was  confined  to  the  Valley  of  the 
Nile ;  that  of  Greece  to  the  Hellenic  race.  But  Buddh¬ 
ism  was  inflamed  with  the  desire  of  bringing  all  man¬ 
kind  to  a  knowledge  of  its  truths.  Its  ardent  and  success¬ 
ful  missionaries  converted  multitudes  in  Nepaul,  Thibet, 
Birmah,  Ceylon,  China,  Siam,  Japan ;  and  in  all  these 
states  its  monasteries  are  to-day  the  chief  sources  of 
knowledge  and  centres  of  instruction  to  the  people.  It  is 
idle  to  class  such  a  religion  as  this  with  the  superstitions 
which  debase  mankind.  Its  power  lay  in  the  strength  of 
conviction  which  inspired  its  teachers ;  and  that,  again, 
must  have  come  from  the  sight  of  truth,  not  the  belief 
in  error. 

§  4.  Leading  Doctrines  of  Biiddhism. 

What,  then,  are  the  doctrines  of  Buddhism  ?  What  are 
the  essential  teachings  of  the  Buddha  and  his  disciples  ? 
Is  it  a  system,  as  we  are  so  often  told,  which  denies  God 
and  immortality  ?  Has  atheism  such  a  power  over  human 
hearts  in  the  East  ?  Is  the  Asiatic  mind  thus  in  love 
with  eternal  death  ?  Let  us  try  to  discover. 

The  hermit  of  Sakya,  as  we  have  seen,  took  his  de¬ 
parture  from  two  profound  convictions,  —  the  evil  of 
perpetual  change,  and  the  possibility  of  something  perma¬ 
nent.  He  might  have  used  the  language  of  the  Book  of 
Ecclesiastes,  and  cried,  “ Vanity  of  vanities  !  all  is  vanity!” 
The  profound  gloom  of  that  wonderful  book  is  based  on 
the  same  course  of  thought  as  that  of  the  Buddha,  namely, 
that  everything  goes  round  and  round  in  a  circle ;  that 
nothing  moves  forward ;  that  there  is  no  new  thing 
under  the  sun ;  that  the  sun  rises  and  sets,  and  rises 
again ;  that  the  wind  blows  north  and  south,  and  east 
and  west,  and  then  returns  according  to  its  circuits. 
Where  can  rest  be  found  ?  where  peace  ?  where  any 
certainty  ?  Siddartha  was  young ;  but  he  saw  age  ap¬ 
proaching.  He  was  in  health;  but  he  knew  that  sick- 

7* 


154 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


ness  and  death  were  lying  in  wait  for  him.  He  could 
not  escape  from  the  sight  of  this  perpetual  round  of 
growth  and  decay,  life  and  death,  joy  and  woe.  He  cried 
out,  from  the  depths  of  his  soul,  for  something  stable, 
permanent,  real. 

Again,  he  was  assured  that  this  emancipation  from 
change  and  decay  was  to  be  found  in  knowledge.  But 
by  knowledge  he  did  not  intend  the  perception  and  recol¬ 
lection  of  outward  facts,  —  not  learning.  Nor  did  he 
mean  speculative  knowledge,  or  the  power  of  reasoning. 
He  meant  intuitive  knowledge,  the  sight  of  eternal  truth, 
the  perception  of  the  unchanging  laws  of  the  universe. 
This  was  a  knowledge  which  was  not  to  be  attained  by 
any  merely  intellectual  process,  but  by  moral  training,  by 
purity  of  heart  and  life.  Therefore  he  renounced  the 
world,  and  went  into  the  forest,  and  became  an  anchorite. 

But  just  at  this  point  he  separated  himself  from  the 
Brahmans.  They,  also  were,  and  are,  believers  in  the 
value  of  mortification,  abnegation,  penance.  They  had 
their  hermits  in  his  day.  But  they  believed  in  the  value 
of  penance  as  accumulating  merit.  They  practised  self- 
denial  for  its  own  sake.  The  Buddha  practised  it  as  a 
means  to  a  higher  end,  —  emancipation,  purification,  intu¬ 
ition.  And  this  end  he  believed  that  he  had  at  last 
attained.  At  last  he  saw  the  truth.  He  became  “  wide 
awake.”  Illusions  disappeared ;  the  reality  was  before 
him.  He  was  the  Buddha,  —  the  Man  who  knew. 

Still  he  was  a  man,  not  a  God.  And  here  again  is 
another  point  of  departure  from  Brahmanism.  In  that 
system,  the  final  result  of  devotion  was  to  become  ab¬ 
sorbed  in  God.  The  doctrine  of  the  Brahmans  is  divine 
absorption;  that  of  the  Buddhists,  human  development. 
In  the  Bralimanical  system,  God  is  everything  and  man 
nothing.  In  the  Buddhist,  man  is  everything  and  God 
nothing.  Here  is  its  atheism,  that  it  makes  so  much  of 
man  as  to  forget  God.  It  is  perhaps  “  without  God  in 
the  world,”  but  it  does  not  deny  him.  It  accepts  the 
doctrine  of  the  three  worlds,  —  the  eternal  world  of  abso¬ 
lute  being ;  the  celestial  world  of  the  gods,  Brahma,  Indra, 
Vischnu,  Siva;  and  the  finite  world,  consisting  of  indi- 


BUDDHISM. 


155 


v-  - 

vidual  souls  and  the  laws  of  nature.  Only  it  says,  of  the 
world  of  absolute  being,  Nirvana,  we  know  nothing.  That 
is  our  aim  and  end ;  but  it  is  the  direct  opposite  to  all  we 
know.  It  is,  therefore,  to  us  as  nothing.  The  celestial 
world,  that  of  the  gods,  is  even  of  less  moment  to  us. 
"What  we  know  are  the  everlasting  laws  of  nature,  by 
obedience  to  which  wTe  rise,  disobeying  which  we  fall,  by 
perfect  obedience  to  which  we  shall  at  last  obtain  Nir¬ 
vana,  and  rest  forever. 

To  the  mind  of  the  Buddha,  therefore,  the  world  con¬ 
sisted  of  two  orders  of  existence,  —  souls  and  laws.  He 
saw  an  infinite  multitude  of  souls,  —  in  insects,  animals, 
men,  —  and  saw  that  they  were  surrounded  by  inflexible 
laws,  —  the  laws  of  nature.  To  know  these  and  to  obey 
them,  —  this  was  emancipation. 

The  fundamental  doctrine  of  Buddhism,  taught  by  its 
founder  and  received  by  all  Buddhists  without  exception, 
in  the  North  and  in  the  South,  in  Birmah  and  Thibet,  in 
Ceylon  and  China,  is  the  doctrine  of  the  four  sublime 
truths,  namely :  — 

1.  All  existence  is  evil,  because  all  existence  is  subject 
to  change  and  decay. 

2.  The  source  of  this  evil  is  the  desire  for  things  which 
are  to  change  and  pass  away. 

3.  This  desire,  and  the  evil  which  follows  it,  are  not 
inevitable;  for  if  we  choose  we  can  arrive  at  Nirvana, 
when  both  shall  wholly  cease. 

4.  There  is  a  fixed  and  certain  method  to  adopt,  by 
pursuing  which  we  attain  this  end,  without  possibility  of 
failure. 

These  four  truths  are  the  basis  of  the  system.  They 
are:  1st,  the  evil;  2d,  its  cause;  3d,  its  end;  4th,  the 
way  of  reaching  the  end.  £ - - 

Then  follow  the  eight  steps  of  this  way,  namely :  — 

1.  Bight  belief,  or  the  correct  faith. 

2.  Bight  judgment,  or  wise  application  of  that  faith  to 
life. 

3.  Bight  utterance,  or  perfect  truth  in  all  that  we  say 
and  do. 

4.  Bight  motives,  or  proposing  always  a  proper  end 
and  aim. 


156 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


5.  Right  occupation,  or  an  outward  life  not  involving 
sin. 

6.  Right  obedience,  or  faithful  observance  of  duty. 

7.  Right  memory,  or  a  proper  recollection  of  past 
conduct. 

8.  Right  meditation,  or  keeping  the  mind  fixed  on 
permanent  truth. 

After  this  system  of  doctrine  follow  certain  moral  com¬ 
mands  and  prohibitions,  namely,  five,  which  apply  to  all 
men,  and  five  others  which  apply  only  to  the  novices  or 
the  monks.  The  five  first  commandments  are  :  1st,  do 
not  kill ;  2d,  do  not  steal ;  3d,  do  not  commit  adultery ; 
4th,  do  not  lie  ;  5th,  do  not  become  intoxicated.  The 
other  five  are :  1st,  take  no  solid  food  after  noon ;  2d,  do 
not  visit  dances,  singing,  or  theatrical  representations ; 
3d,  use  no  ornaments  or  perfumery  in  dress  ;  4th,  use  no 
luxurious  beds  ;  5th,  accept  neither  gold  nor  silver. 

All  these  doctrines  and  precepts  have  been  the  subject 
of  innumerable  commentaries  and  expositions.  Every¬ 
thing  has  been  commented,  explained,  and  elucidated. 
Systems  of  casuistry  as  voluminous  as  those  of  the 
Fathers  of  the  Company  of  Jesus,  systems  of  theology 
as  full  of  minute  analysis  as  the  great  Summa  Totius 
Theologicc  of  St.  Thomas,  are  to  be  found  in  the  libraries 
of  the  monasteries  of  Thibet  and  Ceylon.  The  monks 
have  their  Golden  Legends,  their  Lives  of  Saints,  full  of 
miracles  and  marvels.  On  this  simple  basis  of  a  few 
rules  and  convictions  has  arisen  a  vast  fabric  of  meta¬ 
physics.  Much  of  this  literature  is  instructive  and  enter¬ 
taining.  Some  of  it  is  profound.  Baur,  who  had  made  a 
special  study  of  the  intricate  speculations  of  the  Gnostics, 
compares  them  with  “  the  vast  abstractions  of  Buddhism.” 

§  5.  The  Spirit  of  Buddhism  Rational  and  Humane. 

Ultimately,  two  facts  appear,  as  we  contemplate  this 
system,  —  first,  its  rationalism ;  second,  its  humanity. 

It  is  a  system  of  rationalism.  It  appeals  throughout 
to  human  reason.  It  proposes  to  save  man,  not  from 
a  future  but  a  present  hell,  and  to  save  him  by  teach 


BUDDHISM. 


157 


ing.  Its  great  means  of  influence  is  the  sermon.  The 
Buddha  preached  innumerable  sermons ;  his  missionaries 
went  abroad  preaching.  Buddhism  has  made  all  its  con¬ 
quests  honorably,  by  a  process  of  rational  appeal  to  the 
human  mind.  It  was  never  propagated  by  force,  even 
when  it  had  the  power  of  imperial  rajas  to  support  it. 
Certainly,  it  is  a  very  encouraging  fact  in  the  history  of 
man,  that  the  two  religions  which  have  made  more  con¬ 
verts  than  any  other,  Buddhism  and  Christianity,  have 
not  depended  for  their  success  on  the  sword  of  the  con¬ 
queror  or  the  frauds  of  priestcraft,  but  have  gained  their 
victories  in  the  fair  conflict  of  reason  with  reason.  We 
grant  that  Buddhism  has  not  been  without  its  supersti¬ 
tions  and  its  errors  ;  but  it  has  not  deceived,  and  it  has  not 
persecuted.  In  this  respect  it  can  teach  Christians  a  les¬ 
son.  Buddhism  has  no  prejudices  against  those  who  con¬ 
fess  another  faith.  The  Buddhists  have  founded  no  In¬ 
quisition  ;  they  have  combined  the  zeal  which  converted 
kingdoms  with  a  toleration  almost  inexplicable  to  our 
Western  experience.  Only  one  religious  war  has  dark¬ 
ened  their  peaceful  history  during  twenty-three  cen¬ 
turies,  —  that  which  took  place  in  Thibet,  but  of  which 
we  know  little.  A  Siamese  told  Crawford  that  he  be¬ 
lieved  all  the  religions  of  the  world  to  be  branches  of  the 
true  religion.  A  Buddhist  in  Ceylon  sent  his  son  to  a 
Christian  school,  and  told  the  astonished  missionary,  “  I 
respect  Christianity  as  much  as  Buddhism,  for  I  regard  it 
as  a  help  to  Buddhism.”  MM.  Hue  and  Gabet  converted 
no  Buddhist  in  Tartary  and  Thibet,  but  they  partially 
converted  one,  bringing  him  so  far  as  to  say  that  he  con¬ 
sidered  himself  at  the  same  time  a  good  Christian  and  a 
good  Buddhist. 

Buddhism  is  also  a  religion  of  humanity.  Because  it 
lays  such  stress  on  reason,  it  respects  all  men,  since  all 
possess  this  same  gift.  In  its  origin  it  broke  down  all 
castes.  All  men,  of  whatever  rank,  can  enter  its  priest¬ 
hood.  It  has  an  unbounded  charity  for  all  souls,  and 
holds  it  a  duty  to  make  sacrifices  for  all.  One  legend 
tells  us  that  the  Buddha  gave  his  body  for  food  to  a 
starved  tigress,  who  could  not  nurse  her  young  through 


158 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


weakness.  An  incident  singularly  like  that  in  the  fourth 
chapter  of  John  is  recorded  of  the  hermit,  who  asked  a 
woman  of  low  caste  for  water,  and  when  she  expressed 
surprise  said,  “  Give  me  drink,  and  I  will  give  you  truth/’ 
The  unconditional  command,  “  Thou  shalt  not  kill,” 
which  applies  to  all  living  creatures,  has  had  great  in¬ 
fluence  in  softening  the  manners*  of  the  Mongols.  This 
command  is  connected  with  the  doctrine  of  transmigra¬ 
tion  of  souls,  which  is  one  of  the  essential  doctrines  of 
this  system  as  well  as  of  Brahmanism.  But  Buddhism 
has  abolished  human  sacrifices,  and  indeed  all  bloody 
offerings,  and  its  innocent  altars  are  only  crowned  with 
flowers  and  leaves.  It  also  inculcates  a  positive  human¬ 
ity,  consisting  of  good  actions.  All  its  priests  are  sup¬ 
ported  by  daily  alms.  It  is  a  duty  of  the  Buddhist  to  be 
hospitable  to  strangers,  to  establish  hospitals  for  the  sick 
and  poor,  and  even  for  sick  animals,  to  plant  shade-trees, 
and  ereot  houses  for  travellers.  Mr.  Malcoin,  the  Baptist 
missionary,  says  that  he  was  resting  one  day  in  a  zayat 
in  a  small  village  in  Birmah,  and  was  scarcely  seated 
when  a  woman  brought  a  nice  mat  for  him  to  lie  on. 
Another  brought  cool  water,  and  a  man  went  and  picked 
for  him  half  a  dozen  good  oranges.  None  sought  or  ex¬ 
pected,  he  says,  the  least  reward,  but  disappeared,  and  left 
him  to  his  repose.  He  adds :  “  None  can  ascend  the 
river  without  being  struck  with  the  hardihood,  skill, 
energy,  and  good-humor  of  the  Birmese  boatmen.  In 
point  of  temper  and  morality  they  are  infinitely  superior 
to  the  boatmen  on  our  Western  waters.  In  my  various 
trips,  I  have  seen  no  quarrel  nor  heard  a  hard  word.” 

Mr.  Malcom  goes  on  thus :  “  Many  of  these  people 
have  never  seen  a  white  man  before,  but  I  am  constantly 
struck  with  their  politeness.  They  desist  from  anything 
on  the  slightest  intimation ;  never  crowd  around  to  be 
troublesome ;  and  if  on  my  showing  them  my  watch  or 
pencil-case,  or  anything  which  particularly  attracts  them, 
there  are  more  than  can  get  a  sight,  the  outer  ones  stand 
aloof  and  wait  till  their  turn  comes . 

“  I  saw  no  intemperance  in  Birmah,  though  an  intoxi¬ 
cating  liquor  is  made  easily  of  the  juice  of  a  palm.  .... 


BUDDHISM. 


159 


"A  man  may  travel  from  one  end  of  the  kingdom  to 
the  other  without  money,  feeding  and  lodging  as  well  as 
the  people.” 

“  I  have  seen  thousands  together,  for  hours,  on  public 
occasions,  rejoicing  in  all  ardor,  and  no  act  of  violence  or 
case  of  intoxication . 

“  During  my  whole  residence  in  the  country  I  never 
saw  an  indecent  act  or  immodest  gesture  in  man  or 

woman . I  have  seen  hundreds  of  men  and  women 

bathing,  and  no  immodest  or  careless  act.  .... 

“  Children  are  treated  with  great  kindness,  not  only  by 
the  mother  but  the  father,  who,  when  unemployed,  takes 
the  young  child  in  his  arms,  and  seems  pleased  to  attend 
to  it,  while  the  mother  cleans  the  rice  or  sits  unemployed 
at  his  side.  I  have  as  often  seen  fathers  caressing  female 
infants  as  male.  A  widow  with  male  and  female  children 
is  more  likely  to  be  sought  in  marriage  than  if  she  has 
none . 

“  Children  are  almost  as  reverent  to  parents  as  among 
the  Chinese.  The  aged  are  treated  with  great  care  and 
tenderness,  and  occupy  the  best  places  in  all  assemblies.” 

According  to  Saint-Hilaire’s  opinion,  the  Buddhist  mo¬ 
rality  is  one  of  endurance,  patience,  submission,  and  absti¬ 
nence,  rather  than  of  action,  energy,  enterprise.  Love 
for  all  beings  is  its  nucleus,  every  animal  being  our  possi¬ 
ble  relative.  To  love  our  enemies,  to  offer  our  lives  for 
animals,  to  abstain  from  even  defensive  warfare,  to  govern 
ourselves,  to  avoid  vices,  to  pay  obedience  to  superiors,  to 
reverence  age,  to  provide  food  and  shelter  for  men  and 
animals,  to  dig  wells  and  plant  trees,  to  despise  no  reli¬ 
gion,  show  no  intolerance,  not  to  persecute,  are  the  virtues 
of  these  people.  Polygamy  is  tolerated,  but  not  approved. 
Monogamy  is  general  in  Ceylon,  Siam,  Birmah ;  some¬ 
what  less  so  in  Thibet  and  Mongolia.  Woman  is  better 
treated  by  Buddhism  than  by  any  other  Oriental  religion. 

§  6.  Buddhism  as  a  Religion. 

But  what  is  the  religious  life  of  Buddhism  ?  Can  there 
be  a  religion  without  a  God  ?  And  if  Buddhism  has  no 


160 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


God,  how  can  it  have  worship,  prayer,  devotion  ?  There 
is  no  doubt  that  it  has  all  these.  We  have  seen  that  its 
cultus  is  much  like  that  of  the  Boman  Catholic  Church. 
It  differs  from  this  church  in  having  no  secular  priests,  but 
only  regulars ;  all  its  clergy  are  monks,  taking  the  three 
vows  of  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience.  Their  vows, 
however,  are  not  irrevocable  ;  they  can  relinquish  the  yel¬ 
low  robe,  and  return  into  the  world,  if  they  find  they  have 
mistaken  their  vocation. 

The  God  of  Buddhism  is  the  Buddha  himself,  the 
deified  man,  who  has  become  an  infinite  being  by  entering 
Nirvana.  To  him  prayer  is  addressed,  and  it  is  so  natural 
for  man  to  pray,  that  no  theory  can  prevent  him  from 
doing  it.  In  Thibet,  prayer-meetings  are  held  even  in  the 
streets.  Hue  says  :  “  There  is  a  very  touching  custom  at 
Lliassa.  In  the  evening,  just  before  sundown,  all  the 
people  leave  their  work,  and  meet  in  groups  in  the  public 
streets  and  squares.  All  kneel  and  begin  to  chant  their 
prayers  in  a  low  and  musical  tone.  The  concert  of  song 
winch  rises  from  all  these  numerous  reunions  produces  an 
immense  and  solemn  harmony,  which  deeply  impresses 
the  mind.  We  could  not  help  sadly  comparing  this  Pagan 
city,  where  all  the  people  prayed  together,  with  our  Euro¬ 
pean  cities,  where  men  would  blush  to  be  seen  making 
the  sign  of  the  cross.” 

In  Thibet  confession  was  early  enjoined.  Public  wor¬ 
ship  is  there  a  solemn  confession  before  the  assembled 
priests.  It  confers  entire  absolution  from  sins.  It  con¬ 
sists  in  an  open  confession  of  sin,  and  a  promise  to  sin  no 
more.  Consecrated  water  is  also  used  in  the  service  of 
the  Pagodas. 

There  are  thirty-five  Buddhas  who  have  preceded  Sakya- 
muni,  and  are  considered  the  chief  powers  for  taking 
away  sin.  These  are  called  the  “  Thirty-five  Buddhas  of 
Confession.”  Sakya-muni,  however,  has  been  included  in 
the  number.  Some  lamas  are  also  joined  with  them  in 
the  sacred  pictures,  as  Tsonkhapa,  a  lama  born  in  A.  D. 
1555,  and  others.  The  mendicant  priests  of  Buddha  are 
bound  to  confess  twice  a  month,  at  the  new  and  full 
moon. 


BUDDHISM. 


161 


The  Buddhists  have  also  nunneries  for  women.  It  is 
related  that  Sakya-muni  consented  to  establish  them  at 
the  earnest  request  of  his  aunt  and  nurse,  and  of  his 
favorite  disciple,  Ananda.  These  nuns  take  the  same 
vows  as  the  monks.  Their  rules  -require  them  to  show 
reverence  even  to  the  youngest  monk,  and  to  use  no  angry 
or  harsh  words  to  a  priest.  The  nun  must  be  willing  to 
be  taught ;  she  must  go  once  a  fortnight  for  this  purpose 
to  some  virtuous  teacher  ;  she  must  not  devote  more  than 
two  weeks  at  a  time  to  spiritual  retirement ;  she  must  not 
go  out  merely  for  amusement ;  after  two  years’  prepara¬ 
tion  she  can  be  initiated,  and  she  is  bound  to  attend  the 
closing  ceremonies  of  the  rainy  season. 

§  7.  Karina  and  Nirvana. 

One  of  the  principal  metaphysical  doctrines  of  this 
system  is  that  which  it  called  Karma.  This  means  the 
law  of  consequences,  by  which  every  act  committed  in 
one  life  entails  results  in  another.  This  law  operates 
until  one  reaches  Nirvana.  Mr.  Hardy  goes  so  far  as  to 
suppose  that  Karma  causes  the  merits  or  demerits  of  each 
soul  to  result  at  death  in  the  production  of  another  con¬ 
sciousness,  and  in  fact  to  result  in  a  new  person.  But 
this  must  be  an  error.  Karma  is  the  law  of  consequences, 
by  which  every  act  receives  its  exact  recompense  in  the 
next  world,  where  the  soul  is  bom  again.  But  unless  the 
same  soul  passes  on,  such  a  recompense  is  impossible. 

“  Karma”  said  Buddha,  “  is  the  most  essential  property 
of  all  beings  ;  it  is  inherited  from  previous  births,  it  is 
the  cause  of  all  good  and  evil,  and  the  reason  why  some 
are  mean  and  some  exalted  when  they  come  into  the 
world.  It  is  like  the  shadow  which  always  accompanies 
the  body.”  Buddha  himself  obtained  all  his  elevation  by 
means  of  the  Karma  obtained  in  previous  states.  No  one 
can  obtain  Karma  or  merit,  but  those  who  hear  the  dis¬ 
courses  of  Buddha. 

There  has  been  much  discussion  among  scholars  con¬ 
cerning  the  true  meaning  of  Nirvana,  the  end  of  all  Bud¬ 
dhist  expectation.  Is  it  annihilation  ?  Or  is  it  absorp- 


162 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


tion  in  God  ?  The  weight  of  authority,  no  doubt,  is  in 
favor  of  the  first  view.  Burnouf’s  conclusion  is  :  “  For 
Buddhist  theists,  it  is  the  absorption  of  the  individual  life 
in  God ;  for  atheists,  absorption  of  this  individual  life  in 
the  nothing.  But  for  both,  it  is  deliverance  from  all  evil, 
it  is  supreme  affranchisement.”  In  the  opinion  that  it  is 
annihilation  agree  Max  Muller,  Tumour,  Schmidt,  and 
Hardy.  And  M.  Saint-Hilaire,  while  calling  it  “  a  hideous 
faith,”  nevertheless  assigns  it  to  a  third  part  of  the  human 
race. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  scholars  of  the  highest  rank 
deny  this  view.  In  particular,  Bunsen  (Gott  in  cler  Ges- 
chichte)  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that,  in  the  oldest 
monuments  of  this  religion,  the  earliest  Sutras,  Nirvana  is 
spoken  of  as  a  condition  attained  in  the  present  life. 
How  then  can  it  mean  annihilation  ?  It  is  a  state  in 
which  all  desires  cease,  all  passions  die.  Bunsen  believes 
that  the  Buddha  never  denied  or  questioned  God  or  im¬ 
mortality. 

The  following  account  of  Nirvana  is  taken  from  the 

o 

Pali  Sacred  Books  :  — 

“  Again  the  king  of  Saga!  said  to  Nagasena :  ‘  Is  the 
joy  of  Nirvana  unmixed,  or  is  it  associated  with  sorrow  ?  * 
The  priest  replied  that  it  is  unmixed  satisfaction,  entirely 
free  from  sorrow. 

“  Again  the  king  of  Sagal  said  to  Nagasena :  *  Is  Nir¬ 
vana  in  the  east,  west,  south,  or  north ;  above  or  below  ? 
Is  there  such  a  place  as  Nirvana  ?  If  so,  where  is  it  ? ’ 
Nagasena :  ‘  Neither  in  the  east,  south,  west,  nor  north, 
neither  in  the  sky  above,  nor  in  the  earth  below,  nor  in 
any  of  the  infinite  sakwalas,  is  there  such  a  place  as  Nir¬ 
vana.’  Milinda :  ‘  Then  if  Nirvana  have  no  locality,  there 
can  be  no  such  thing ;  and  when  it  is  said  that  any  one 
attains  Nirvana,  the  declaration  is  false.’  Nagasena: 
4  There  is  no  such  place  as  Nirvana,  and  yet  it  exists  ;  the 
priest  who  seeks  it  in  the  right  manner  will  attain  it.’ 
‘  When  Nirvana  is  attained,  is  there  such  a  place  V  Na¬ 
gasena:  ‘  When  a  priest  attains  Nirvana  there  is  such  a 
place.’  Milinda :  ‘  Where  is  that  place  ?  ’  Nagasena : 
*  Wherever  the  precepts  can  be  observed  ;  it  may  be  any- 


BUDDHISM. 


1G3 


where  :  just  as  he  who  has  two  eyes  can  see  the  sky  from 
any  or  all  places ;  or  as  all  places  may  have  an  eastern 
side.’  ” 

The  Buddhist  asserts  Nirvana  as  the  object  of  all  his 
hope,  yet,  if  you  ask  him  what  it  is,  may  reply,  "  Nothing.” 
But  this  cannot  mean  that  the  highest  good  of  man  is 
annihilation.  No  pessimism  could  be  more  extreme  than 
such  a  doctrine.  Such  a  belief  is  not  in  accordance  writh 
human  nature.  Tennyson  is  wiser  when  he  writes  :  — 

“  Whatever  crazy  sorrow  saith, 

No  life  that  breathes  with  human  breath 
Has  ever  truly  longed  for  death. 

“  ’T  is  life,  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant, 

0  life,  not  death,  for  which  we  pant ; 

More  life,  and  fuller,  that  I  want.  ” 

The  Buddhist,  when  he  says  that  Nirvana  is  nothing, 
means  simply  that  it  is  no  thing  ;  that  it  is  nothing  to  our 
present  conceptions  ;  that  it  is  the  opposite  of  all  we 
know,  the  contradiction  of  what  we  call  life  now,  a  state 
so  sublime,  so  wholly  different  from  anything  we  know  or 
can  know  now,  that  it  is  the  same  thing  as  nothing  to  us. 
All  present  life  is  change ;  that  is  permanence :  all  pres¬ 
ent  life  is  going  up  and  down  ;  that  is  stability :  all  present 
life  is  the  life  of  sense ;  that  is  spirit. 

The  Buddhist  denies  God  in  the  same  way.  He  is  the 
unknowable.  He  is  the  impossible  to  be  conceived  of. 

“  Who  shall  name  Him 
And  dare  to  say, 

‘  I  believe  in  Him  ’  ? 

Who  shall  deny  Him, 

And  venture  to  affirm, 

‘  I  believe  in  Him  not  l  ’  ”* 

To  the  Buddhist,  in  short,  the  element  of  time  and  the 
finite  is  all,  as  to  the  Brahman  the  element  of  eternity  is 
all.  It  is  the  most  absolute  contradiction  of  Brahmanism 
which  we  can  conceive. 

It  seems  impossible  for  the  Eastern  mind  to  hold  at  the 
same  time  the  two  conceptions  of  God  and  nature,  the  in¬ 
finite  and  the  finite,  eternity  and  time.  The  Brahmans 

*  Goethe,  Faust. 


164 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


accept  the  reality  of  God,  the  infinite  and  the  eternal,  and 
omit  the  reality  of  the  finite,  of  nature,  history,  time,  and 
the  world.  The  Buddhist  accepts  the  last,  and  ignores 
the  first. 

This  question  has  been  fully  discussed  by  Mr.  Alger  in 
his  very  able  work,  “  Critical  History  of  the  Doctrine  of 
a  Future  Life,”  and  his  conclusion  is  wholly  opposed  to 
the  view  which  makes  Nirvana  equivalent  to  annihila¬ 
tion. 


§  8.  Good  and  Evil  of  Buddhism. 

The  good  and  the  evil  of  Buddhism  are  thus  summed 
up  by  M.  Saint-Hilaire. 

He  remarks  that  the  first  peculiarity  of  Buddhism  is 
the  wholly  practical  direction  taken  by  its  founder.  He 
proposes  to  himself  the  salvation  of  mankind.  He  ab¬ 
stains  from  the  subtle  philosophy  of  the  Brahmans,  and 
takes  the  most  direct  and  simple  way  to  his  end.  But  he 
does  not  offer  low  and  sensual  rewards ;  he  does  not,  like 
so  many  lawgivers,  promise  to  his  followers  riches,  pleas¬ 
ures,  conquests,  power.  He  invites  them  to  salvation  by 
means  of  virtue,  knowledge,  and  self-denial.  Not  in  the 
Yedas,  nor  the  books  which  proceed  from  it,  do  we  find 
such  noble  appeals,  though  they  too  look  at  the  infinite 
as  their  end.  But  the  indisputable  glory  of  Buddha  is  the 
boundless  charity  to  man  with  which  his  soul  was  filled. 
He  lived  to  instruct  and  guide  man  aright.  He  says  in 
so  many  words,  “  My  law  is  a  law  of  grace  for  all  ”  (Bur- 
nouf,  Introduction,  etc.,  p.  198).  We  may  add  to  M. 
Saint-Hilaire’s  statement,  that  in  these  words  the  Buddha 
plainly  aims  at  what  we  have  called  a  catholic  religion.  In 
his  view  of  man’s  sorrowful  life,  all  distinctions  of  rank 
and  class  fall  away  ;  all  are  poor  and  needy  together  ;  and 
here,  too,  he  comes  in  contact  with  that  Christianity  which 
says,  “  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy- 
laden.”  Buddha  also  wished  to  cure  the  sicknesses,  not 
only  of  the  Hindoo  life,  but  of  the  life  of  mankind. 

M.  Saint-Hilaire  adds,  that,  in  seeking  thus  to  help 
man,  the  means  of  the  Buddha  are  pure,  like  his  ends. 


BUDDHISM. 


165 


He  tries  to  convince  and  to  persuade  :  he  does  not  wish 
to  compel.  He  allows  confession,  and  helps  the  weak 
and  simple  by  explanations  and  parables.  He  also  tries 
to  guard  man  against  evil,  by  establishing  habits  of  chas¬ 
tity,  temperance,  and  self-control.  *  He  goes  forward  into 
the  Christian  graces  of  patience,  humility,  and  forgive¬ 
ness  of  injuries.  He  has  a  horror  of  falsehood,  a  rever¬ 
ence  for  truth ;  he  forbids  slander  and  gossip  ;  he  teaches 
respect  for  parents,  family,  life,  home. 

Yet  Saint-Hilaire  declares  that,  with  all  these  merits, 
Buddhism  has  not  been  able  to  found  a  tolerable  social 
state  or  a  single  good  government.  It  failed  in  India, 
the  land  of  its  birth.  Nothing  like  the  progress  and  the 
development  of  Christian  civilization  appears  in  Buddh¬ 
ism.  Something  in  the  heart  of  the  system  makes  it 
sterile,  notwithstanding  its  excellent  intentions.  What 
is  it  ? 

The  fact  is,  that,  notwithstanding  its  benevolent  pur¬ 
poses,  its  radical  thought  is  a  selfish  one.  It  rests  on 
pure  individualism,  —  each  man’s  object  is  to  save  his 
own  soul.  All  the  faults  of  Buddhism,  according  to  M. 
Saint-Hilaire,  spring  from  this  root  of  egotism  in  the 
heart  of  the  system. 

No  doubt  the  same  idea  is  found  in  Christianity.  Per¬ 
sonal  salvation  is  herein  included.  But  Christianity  starts 
from  a  very  different  point :  it  is  the  “  kingdom  of  Heav¬ 
en.”  “  Thy  kingdom  come  :  thy  will  be  done  on  earth.”  . 
It  is  not  going  on  away  from  time  to  find  an  unknown 
eternity.  It  is  God  with  us,  eternity  here,  eternal  life 
abiding  in  us  now.  If  some  narrow  Protestant  sects 
make  Christianity  to  consist  essentially  in  the  salvation 
of  our  own  soul  hereafter,  they  fall  into  the  condemna¬ 
tion  of  Buddhism.  But  that  is  not  the  Christianity  of 
Christ.  Christ  accepts  the  great  prophetic  idea  of  a  Mes¬ 
siah  who  brings  down  Gq$’s  reign  into  this  life.  It  is 
the  New  Jerusalem  coming  down  from  God  out  of  heav¬ 
en.  It  is  the  earth  full  of  the  knowledge  of  God,  as  the 
waters  cover  the  sea.  It  is  all  mankind  laboring  together 
for  this  general  good. 

This  solitary  preoccupation  with  one’s  own  salvation 


166 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


causes  the  religious  teachers  of  Buddhism  to  live  apart, 
outside  of  society,  and  take  no  interest  in  it.  There  is  in 
the  Catholic  and  Protestant  world,  beside  the  monk,  a 
secular  priesthood,  which  labors  to  save  other  men’s 
bodies  and  souls.  No  such  priesthood  exists  in  Buddhism. 

Moreover,  not  the  idea  of  salvation  from  evil,  —  which 
keeps  before  us  evil  as  the  object  of  contemplation,  —  but 
the  idea  of  good,  is  the  true  motive  for  the  human  con¬ 
science.  This  leads  us  up  at  once  to  God ;  this  alone 
can  create  love.  We  can  only  love  by  seeing  something 
lovely.  God  must  seem,  not  terrible,  but  lovely,  in  order 
to  be  loved.  Man  must  seem,  not  mean  and  poor,  but 
noble  and  beautiful,  before  we  can  love  him.  This  idea 
of  the  good  does  not  appear  in  Buddhism,  says  M.  Saint- 
Hilaire.  Not  a  spark  of  this  divine  flame  —  that  which 
to  see  and  show  has  given  immortal  glory  to  Plato  and  to 
Socrates  —  has  descended  on  Sakya-muni.  The  notion  of 
rewards,  substituted  for  that  of  the  infinite  beauty,  has 
perverted  everything  in  his  system. 

Duty  itself  becomes  corrupted,  as  soon  as  the  idea  of 
the  good  disappears.  It  becomes  then  a  blind  submission 
to  mere  law.  It  is  an  outward  constraint,  not  an  inward 
inspiration.  Scepticism  follows.  “  The  world  is  empty, 
the  heart  is  dead  surely,”  is  its  language.  Nihilism  ar¬ 
rives  sooner  or  later.  God  is  nothing ;  man  is  nothing  ; 
life  is  nothing  ;  death  is  nothing ;  eternity  is  nothing. 
Hence  the  profound  sadness  of  Buddhism.  To  its  eye  all 
existence  is  evil,  and  the  only  hope  is  to  escape  from  time 
into  eternity,  —  or  into  nothing,  —  as  you  may  choose  to 
interpret  Nirvana.  While  Buddhism  makes  God,  or  the 
good,  and  heaven,  to  be  equivalent  to  nothing,  it  intensi¬ 
fies  and  exaggerates  evil.  Though  heaven  is  a  blank, 
hell  is  a  very  solid  reality.  It  is  present  and  future  too. 
Everything  in  the  thousand  hells  of  Buddhism  is  painted 
as  vividly  as  in  the  hell  of  Dante.  God  has  disappeared 
from  the  universe,  and  in  his  place  is  only  the  inexorable 
law,  which  grinds  on  forever.  It  punishes  and  rewards, 
but  has  no  love  in  it.  It  is  only  dead,  cold,  hard,  cruel, 
unrelenting  law.  Yet  Buddhists  are  not  atheists,  any 
more  than  a  child  who  has  never  heard  of  God  is  an 


BUDDHISM. 


f 

. 


167 


atheist.  A  child  is  neither  deist  nor  atheist :  he  has  no 
theology. 

The  only  emancipation  from  self-love  is  in  the  percep¬ 
tion  of  an  infinite  love.  Buddhism,  ignoring  this  infinite 
love,  incapable  of  communion  with  God,  aiming  at  mo¬ 
rality  without  religion,  at  humanity  without  piety,  be¬ 
comes  at  last  a  prey  to  the  sadness  of  a  selfish  isolation. 
We  do  not  say  that  this  is  always  the  case,  for  in  all  sys¬ 
tems  the  heart  often  redeems  the  errors  of  the  head.  But 
this  is  the  logical  drift  of  the  system  and  its  usual  out¬ 
come. 

§  9.  Relation  of  Buddhism  to  Christianity. 

In  closing  this  chapter,  let  us  ask  what  relation  this 
great  system  sustains  to  Christianity. 

The  fundamental  doctrine  and  central  idea  of  Buddhism 
is  personal  salvation,  or  the  salvation  of  the  sold  by  per¬ 
sonal  acts  of  faith  and  obedience.  This  we  maintain,  not¬ 
withstanding  the  opinion  that  some  schools  of  Buddhists 
teach  that  the  soul  itself  is  not  a  constant  element  or  a 
special  substance,  but  the  mere  result  of  past  merit  or 
demerit.  For  if  there  be  no  soul,  there  can  be  no  trans¬ 
migration.  Now  it  is  certain  that  the  doctrine  of  trans¬ 
migration  is  the  very  basis  of  Buddhism,  the  corner-stone 
of  the  system.  Thus  M.  Saint-Hilaire  says :  “  The  chief 
and  most  immovable  fact  of  Buddhist  metaphysics  is  the 
doctrine  of  transmigration.”  Without  a  soul  to  migrate, 
there  can  be  no  migration.  Moreover,  the  whole  ethics 
of  the  system  would  fall  with  its  metaphysics,  on  this 
theory ;  for  why  urge  men  to  right  conduct,  in  order  to 
attain  happiness,  or  Nirvana,  hereafter,  if  they  are  not 
to  exist  hereafter.  No,  the  soul’s  immortality  is  a  radical 
doctrine  in  Buddhism,  and  this  doctrine  is  one  of  its 
points  of  contact  with  Christianity. 

Another  point  of  contact  is  its  doctrine  of  reward  and 
punishment,  —  a  doctrine  incompatible  with  the  supposi¬ 
tion  that  the  soul  does  not  pass  on  from  world  to  world. 
But  this  is  the  essence  of  all  its  ethics,  the  immutable, 
inevitable,  unalterable  consequences  of  good  and  evil.  In 


168 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


this  also  it  agrees  with  Christianity,  which  teaches  that 
“  whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap  ”  ;  that 
he  who  turns  his  pound  into  five  will  he  set  over  five 
cities,  he  who  turns  it  into  ten,  over  ten  cities. 

A  third  point  of  contact  with  Christianity,  however 
singular  it  may  at  first  appear  to  say  so,  is  the  doctrine 
of  Nirvana.  Nirvana,  to  the  Buddhist,  means1  the  abso¬ 
lute,  eternal  world,  beyond  time  and  space ;  that  which 
is  nothing  to  us  now,  but  will  be  everything  hereafter. 
Incapable  of  cognizing  both  time  and  eternity,  it  makes 
them  absolute  negations  of  each  other. 

The  peculiarity  of  Plato,  according  to  Mr.  Emerson  and 
other  Platonists  was,  that  he  was  able  to  grasp  and  hold 
intellectually  both  conceptions,  —  of  God  and  man,  the 
infinite  and  finite,  the  eternal  and  the  temporal.  The 
merit  of  Christianity  is,  in  like  manner,  that  it  is  able  to 
take  up  and  keep,  not  primarily  as  dogma,  but  as  life, 
both  these  antagonistic  ideas.  Christianity  recognizes 
God  as  the  infinite  and  eternal,  but  recognizes  also  the 
world  of  time  and  space  as  real.  Man  exists  as  well  as 
God :  we  love  God,  wre  must  love  man  too.  Brahmanism 
loves  God,  but  not  man ;  it  has  piety,  but  not  humanity. 
Buddhism  loves  man,  but  not  God ;  it  has  humanity,  but 
not  piety ;  or  if  it  has  piety,  it  is  by  a  beautiful  want  of 
logic,  its  heart  being  wiser  than  its  head.  That  which 
seems  an  impossibility  in  these  Eastern  systems  is  a  fact 
of  daily  life  to  the  Christian  child,  to  the  ignorant  and 
simple  Christian  man  or  woman,  who,  amid  daily  duty 
and  trial,  find  joy  in  both  heavenly  and  earthly  love. 

There  is  a  reason  for  this  in  the  inmost  nature  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  as  compared  with  Buddhism.  Why  is  it  that 
Buddhism  is  a  religion  without  God  ?  Sakya-muni  did  not 
ignore  God.  The  object  of  his  life  was  to  attain  Nirvana, 
that  is,  to  attain  a  union  with  God,  the  Infinite  Being. 
He  became  Buddha  by  this  divine  experience.  Why, 
then,  is  not  this  religious  experience  a  constituent  element 
in  Buddhism,  as  it  is  in  Christianity  ?  Because  in  Buddh¬ 
ism  man  struggles  upward  to  find  God,  while  in  Chris¬ 
tianity  God  comes  down  to  find  man.  To  speak  in  the 
language  of  technical  theology,  Buddhism  is  a  doctrine 


BUDDHISM. 


169 


of  \sorks,  and  Christianity  of  grace.  That  which  God 
gives  all  men  may  receive,  and  he  united  by  this  com¬ 
munity  of  grace  in  one  fellowship.  But  the  results 
attained  by  effort  alone,  divide  men;  because  some  do 
more  and  receive  more  than  others.  The  saint  attained 
Buddha,  but  that  was  because  of  his  superhuman  efforts 
and  sacrifices ;  it  does  not  encourage  others  to  hope  for 
the  same  result. 

We  see,  then,  that  here,  as  elsewhere,  the  superiority 
of  Christianity  is  to  be  found  in  its  quantity,  in  its 
fulness  of  life.  It  touches  Buddhism  at  all  its  good 
points,  in  all  its  truths.  It  accepts  the  Buddhistic  doc¬ 
trine  of  rewards  and  punishments,  of  law,  progress,  self- 
denial,  self-control,  humanity,  charity,  equality  of  man 
with  man,  and  pity  for  human  sorrow ;  but  to  all  this  it 
adds  —  how  much  more  !  It  fills  up  the  dreary  void  of 
Buddhism  with  a  living  God ;  wTith  a  life  of  God  in  man’s 
soul,  a  heaven  here  as  wrell  as  hereafter.  It  gives  us,  in 
addition  to  the  struggle  of  the  soul  to  find  God,  a  God 
coming  down  to  find  the  soul.  It  gives  a  divine  as  real 
as  the  human,  an  infinite  as  solid  as  the  finite.  And  this 
it  does,  not  by  a  system  of  thought,  but  by  a  fountain 
and  stream  of  life.  If  all  Christian  works,  the  New 
Testament  included,  were  destroyed,  we  should  lose  a 
vast  deal  no  doubt ;  but  we  should  not  lose  Christianity ; 
for  that  is  not  a  book,  but  a  life.  Out  of  that  stream  of 
life  would  be  again  developed  the  conception  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  as  a  thought  and  a  belief.  We  should  be  like 
the  people  living  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  ignorant  for 
five  thousand  years  of  its  sources ;  not  knowing  whence 
its  beneficent  inundations  were  derived ;  not  knowing  by 
what  miracle  its  great  stream  could  flow  on  and  on  amid  the 
intense  heats,  where  no  rain  falls,  and  fed  during  a  course 
of  twelve  hundred  miles  by  no  single  affluent,  yet  not 
absorbed  in  the  sand,  nor  evaporated  by  the  ever-burning 
sun.  But  though  ignorant  of  its  source,  they  know  it  has 
a  source,  and  can  enjoy  all  its  benefits  and  blessings.  So 
Christianity  is  a  full  river  of  life,  containing  truths  ap¬ 
parently  the  most  antagonistic,  filling  the  soul  and  heart 

of  man  and  the  social  state  of  nations  with  its  impulses 
•  8 


170 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


and  its  ideas.  We  should  lose  much  in  losing  our  posi¬ 
tive  knowledge  of  its  history ;  hut  if  all  the  books  were 
gone,  the  tablets  of  the  human  heart  would  remain,  and 
on  these  would  be  written  the  everlasting  Gospel  of 
Jesus,  in  living  letters  which  no  years  could  efface  and 
no  changes  conceal. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


171 


CHAPTER  Y. 

ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 

§  1.  Ruins  of  the  Palace  of  Xerxes  at  Persepolis.  §  2.  Greek  Accounts 
of  Zoroaster.  Plutarch’s  Description  of  his  Religion.  §  3.  Anquetil  du 
Perron  and  his  Discovery  of  the  Zend  Avesta.  §  4.  Epoch  of  Zoroaster. 
What  do  we  know  of  him  ?  §  5.  Spirit  of  Zoroaster  and  of  his  Religion. 
§  6.  Character  of  the  Zend  Avesta.  §  7.  Later  Development  of  the 
System  in  the  Bundehesch.  §  8.  Relation  of  the  Religion  of  the  Zend 
Avesta  to  that  of  the  Vedas.  §  9.  Is  Monotheism  or  pure  Dualism 
the  Doctrine  taught  in  the  Zend  Avesta  ?  §  10.  Relation  of  this  Sys¬ 

tem  to  Christianity.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

§  1.  Ruins  of  the  Palace  of  Xerxes  at  Persepolis. 

IN’  the  southwestern  part  of  Persia  is  the  lovely  valley 
of  Schiraz,  in  the  province  of  Earsistan,  which  is  the 
ancient  Persis.  Through  the  long  spring  and  summer  the 
plains  are  covered  with  flowers,  the  air  is  laden  with  per¬ 
fume,  and  the  melody  of  birds,  winds,  and  waters  fills  the 
ear.  The  fields  are  covered  with  grain,  which  ripens  in 
May;  the  grapes,  apricots,  and  peaches  are  finer  than 
those  of  Europe.  The  nightingale  (or  bulbul)  sings  more 
sweetly  than  elsewhere,  and  the  rose-bush,  the  national 
emblem  of  Persia,  grows  to  the  size  of  a  tree,  and  is 
weighed  down  by  its  luxuriant  blossoms.  The  beauty  of 
this  region,  and  the  loveliness  of  the  women  of  Schiraz 
awakened  the  genius  of  Hafiz  and  of  Saadi,  the  two  great 
lyric  poets  of  the  East,  both  of  whom  resided  here. 

At  one  extremity  of  this  valley,  in  the  hollow  of  a 
crescent  formed  by  rocky  hills,  thirty  miles  northwest  of 
Schiraz,  stands  an  immense  platform,  fifty  feet  high  above 
the  plain,  hewn  partly  out  of  the  mountain  itself,  and 
partly  built  up  with  gray  marble  blocks  from  twenty  to 
sixty  feet  long,  so  nicely  fitted  together  that  the  joints  can 
scarcely  be  detected.  This  platform  is  about  fourteen 


172 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


hundred  feet  long  by  nine  hundred  broad,  and  its  faces 
front  the  four  quarters  of  the  heavens.  You  rise  from 
the  plain  by  flights  of  marble  steps,  so  broad  and  easy 
that  a  procession  on  horseback  could  ascend  them.  By 
these  you  reach  a  landing,  where  stand  as  sentinels  two 
colossal  figures  sculptured  from  great  blocks  of  marble. 
The  one  horn  in  the  forehead  seems  to  Heeren  to  indicate 
the  Unicorn  ;  the  mighty  limbs,  whose  muscles  are  carved 
with  the .  precision  of  the  Grecian  chisel,  induced  Sir 
Bobert  Porter  to  believe  that  they  represented  the  sacred 
bulls  of  the  Magian  religion ;  while  the  solemn,  half¬ 
human  repose  of  the  features  suggests  some  symbolic  and 
supernatural  meaning.  Passing  these  sentinels,  who  have 
kept  their  solitary  watch  for  centuries,  you  ascend  by 
other  flights  of  steps  to  the  top  of  the  terrace.  There 
stand,  lonely  and  beautiful,  a  few  gigantic  columns,  whose 
lofty  fluted  shafts  and  elegantly  carved  capitals  belong 
to  an  unknown  order  of  architecture.  Fifty  or  sixty  feet 
high,  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  in  circumference,  they,  with  a 
multitude  of  others,  once  supported  the  roof  of  cedar,  now 
fallen,  whose  beams  stretched  from  capital  to  capital,  and 
which  protected  the  assembled  multitudes  from  the  hot 
sun  of  Southern  x4sia.  Along  the  noble  upper  stairway 
are  carved  rows  of  figures,  which  seem  to  be  ascending  by 
your  side.  They  represent  warriors,  courtiers,  captives, 
men  of  every  nation,  among  whom  may  be  easily  distin¬ 
guished  the  negro  from  the  centre  of  Africa.  Inscriptions 
abound,  in  that  strange  arrow-headed  or  wedge-shaped 
character,  —  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  difficult  of  all,  — 
which,  after  long  baffling  the  learning  of  Europe,  has  at 
last  begun  yielded  to  the  science  and  acuteness  of  the 
present  century.  One  of  the  inscriptions  copied  from 
these  walls  was  read  by  Grotefend  as  follows  :  — 

“Darius  the  King,  King  of  Kings,  son  of  Hystaspes, 
successor  of  the  Euler  of  the  World,  Djemchid.” 

Another :  — 

“  Xerxes  the  King,  King  of  Kings,  son  of  Darius  the 
King,  successor  of  the  Euler  of  the  World.” 

More  recently,  other  inscriptions  have  been  deciphered. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


173 


one  of  which  is  thus  given  by  another  German  Orientalist, 
Benfey :  —  * 

“  Ahura-Mazda  (Ormazd)  is  a  mighty  God  ;  who  has 
created  the  earth,  the  heaven,  and  men ;  who  has  given 
glory  to  men ;  who  has  made  Xerxes  king,  the  ruler  of  'y 
many.  I,  Xerxes,  King  of  Kings,  king  of  the  earth  near 
and  far,  son  of  Darius,  an  Achsemenid.  What  I  have  done 
here,  and  what  I  have  done  elsewhere,  I  have  done  by  the 
grace  of  Ahura-Mazda.” 

In  another  place  :  — 

“  Artaxerxes  the  King  has  declared  that  this  great  work 
is  done  by  me.  May  Ahura-Mazda  and  Mithra  protect 
me,  my  building,  and  my  people.”  -f" 

Here,  then,  was  the  palace  of  Darius  and  his  succes¬ 
sors,  Xerxes  and  Artaxerxes,  famous  for  their  conquests, 
—  some  of  which  are  recorded  on  these  walls,  —  who  car¬ 
ried  their  victorious  arms  into  India  on  the  east,  Syria 
and  Asia  Minor  on  the  west,  but  even  more  famous  for 
being  defeated  at  Marathon  and  Thermopylae.  By  the 
side  of  these  columns  sat  the  great  kings  of  Persia,  giving 
audience  to  ambassadors  from  distant  lands.  Here,  per¬ 
haps,  sat  Cyrus  himself,  the  founder  of  the  Persian  mon¬ 
archy,  and  issued  orders  to  rebuild  Jerusalem.  Here  the 
son  of  Xerxes,  the  Ahasuerus  of  Scripture,  may  have 
brought  from  Susa  the  fair  Esther.  For  this  is  the  famous 
Persepolis,  and  on  those  loftier  platforms,  where  only 
ruinous  heaps  of  stones  now  remain,  stood  that  other 
palace,  which  Alexander  burned  in  his  intoxication  three 
hundred  and  thirty  years  before  Christ.  “  Solitary  in 
their  situation,  peculiar  in  their  character,”  says  Heeren, 

“  these  ruins  rise  above  the  deluge  of  years  which  has 
overwhelmed  all  the  records  of  human  grandeur  around 

*  Die  Persischen  Keilinscriften.  (Leipzig,  1847.)  See  also  the  ac¬ 
count  of  the  inscription  at  Behistun,  in  Lenormant’s  “Manual  of  An¬ 
cient  History.” 

+  Rawlinson,  Five  Great  Monarchies.  —  Duncker,  Geschichte  des  Alter- 
thums,  B.  II. — Heeren,  The  Persians. — Fergusson,  Illustrated  Hand-. 
Book  of  Architecture.  —  Creuzer,  Schriften.  See  also  the  works  of  Op- 
pert,  Hinks,  Menant,  and  Lassen. 


174 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


them,  and  buried  all  traces  of  Susa  and  Babylon.  Their 

venerable  antiquity  and  majestic  proportions  do  not  more 

command  our  reverence,  than  the  mystery  which  involves 

their  construction  awakens  the  curiositv  of  the  most  un- 

*/ 

observant  spectator.  Pillars  which  belong  to  no  known 
order  of  architecture,  inscriptions  in  an  alphabet  which 
continues  an  enigma,  fabulous  animals  which  stand  as 
guards  at  the  entrance,  the  multiplicity  of  allegorical 
figures  which  decorate  the  walls,  —  all  conspire  to  carry  us 
back  to  ages  of  the  most  remote  antiquity,  over  which  the 
traditions  of  the  East  shed  a  doubtful  and  wavering  light.” 

Diodorus  Siculus  says  that  at  Persepolis,  on  the  face  of 
the  mountain,  were  the  tombs  of  the  kings  of  Persia,  and 
that  the  coffins  had  to  be  lifted  up  to  them  along  the  wall 
of  rock  by  cords.  And  Ctesias  tells  us  that  “  Darius,  the 
son  of  Hystaspes,  had  a  tomb  prepared  for  himself  in  the 
double  mountain  during  his  lifetime,  and  that  his  parents 
were  drawn  up  with  cords  to  see  it,  but  fell  and  were 
killed.”  These  very  tombs  are  still  to  be  seen  on  the  face 
of  the  mountain  behind  the  ruins.  The  figures  of  the 
kings  are  carved  over  them.  One  stands  before  an  altar 
on  which  a  fire  is  burning.  A  ball  representing  the  sun 
is  above  the  altar.  Over  the  effigy  of  the  king  hangs  in 
the  air  a  winged  half-length  figure  in  fainter  lines,  and 
resembling  him.  In  other  places  he  is  seen  contending 
with  a  winged  animal  like  a  griffin. 

All  this  points  at  the  great  Iranic  religion,  the  religion 
of  Persia  and  its  monarclis  for  many  centuries,  the 
religion  of  which  Zoroaster  was  the  great  prophet,  and 
the  Avesta  the  sacred  book.  The  king,  as  servant  of 
Ormazd,  is  worshipping  the  fire  and  the  sun,  —  symbols 
of  the  god  ;  he  resists  the  impure  griffin,  the  creature  of 
Ahriman  ;  and  the  half-length  figure  over  his  head  is  the 
surest  evidence  of  the  religion  of  Zoroaster.  For,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  Avesta,  every  created  being  has  its  arche¬ 
type  or  Fereuer  (Ferver,  Fravashis),  which  is  its  ideal 
essence,  first  created  by  the  thought  of  Ormazd.  Even 
Ormazd  himself  has  his  Fravashis,*  and  these  angelic 

*  Yendidad,  Fargard,  XIX.  -  XLYI.  Spiegel,  translated  into  English 
by  Bleek. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AYESTA. 


175 


\ 

essences  are  every wliere  objects  of  worship  to  the  disciple 
of  Zoroaster.  We  have  thus  found  in  Persepolis,  not 
only  the  palace  of  the  great  kings  of  Persia,  but  the  home 
of  that  most  ancient  system  of  Dualism,  the  system  of 
Zoroaster. 

§  2.  Greek  Accounts  of  Zoroaster.  Plutarch's  Description 

of  his  Religion. 

But  who  was  Zoroaster,  and  what  do  we  know  of  him  ? 
He  is  mentioned  by  Plato,  about  four  hundred  years 
before  Christ.  In  speaking  of  the  education  of  a  Persian 
prince  he  says  that  “one  teacher  instructs  him  in  the 
magic  of  Zoroaster,  the  son  (or  priest)  of  Ormazd  (or 
Oromazes),  in  which  is  comprehended  all  the  worship  of 
the  gods.”  He  is  also  spoken  of  by  Diodorus,  Plutarch, 
the  elder  Pliny,  and  many  writers  of  the  first  centuries 
after  Christ.  The  worship  of  the  Magians  is  described 
by  Herodotus  before  Plato.  Herodotus  gives  very  minute 
accounts  of  the  ritual,  priests,  sacrifices,  purifications,  and 
mode  of  burial  used  by  the  Persian  Magi  in  his  time, 
four  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Christ ;  and  his  ac¬ 
count  closely  corresponds  with  the  practices  of  the  Parsis, 
or  fire-worshippers,  still  remaining  in  one  or  two  places 
in  Persia  and  India  at  the  present  day.  “  The  Persians,” 
he  says,  “  have  no  altars,  no  temples  nor  images  ;  they 
worship  on  the  tops  of  the  mountains.  They  adore  the 
heavens,  and  sacrifice  to  the  sun,  moon,  earth,  fire,  water, 
and  winds.”  *  “  They  do  not  erect  altars,  nor  use  libations, 

fillets,  or  cakes.  One  of  the  Magi  sings  an  ode  concern¬ 
ing  the  origin  of  the  gods,  over  the  sacrifice,  which  is  laid 
on  a  bed  of  tender  grass.”  “  They  pay  great  reverence  to 
all  rivers,  and  must  do  nothing  to  defile  them ;  in  burying 
they  never  put  the  body  in  the  ground  till  it  lias  been 
torn  by  some  bird  or  dog;  they  cover  the  body  with 
wax,  and  then  put  it  in  the  ground.”  “  The  Magi  think 
they  do  a  meritorious  act  when  they  kill  ants,  snakes, 
reptiles.”  j* 

*  Herodotus,  I.  131. 

+  Herodotus,  in  various  parts  of  his  history. 


176 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Plutarch’s  account  of  Zoroaster  *  and  liis  precepts,  is 
very  remarkable.  It  is  as  follows  :  — 

“  Some  believe  that  there  are  two  Gods,  —  as  it  were, 
two  rival  workmen  ;  the  one  whereof  they  make  to  be  the 
maker  of  good  things,  and  the  other  bad.  And  some  call 
the  better  of  these  God,  and  the  other  Dgemon ;  as  doth 
Zoroastres,  the  Magee,  whom  they  report  to  be  five  thou¬ 
sand  years  elder  than  the  Trojan  times.  This  Zoroastres 
therefore  called  the  one  of  these  Oromazes,  and  the  other 
Arimanius ;  and  affirmed,  moreover,  that  the  one  of  them 
did,  of  anything  sensible,  the  most  resemble  light,  and  the 
other  darkness  and  ignorance ;  but  that  Mithras  was  in 
the  middle  betwixt  them.  For  which  cause,  the  Persians 
called  Mithras  the  mediator.  And  .they  tell  us  that  he 
first  taught  mankind  to  make  vows  and  offerings  of 
thanksgiving  to  the  one,  and  to  offer  averting  and  feral 
sacrifice  to  the  other.  For  they  beat  a  certain  plant  called 
liomomy  f  in  a  mortar,  and  call  upon  Pluto  and  the  dark ; 
and  then  mix  it  with  the  blood  of  a  sacrificed  wolf,  and 
convey  it  to  a  certain  place  where  the  sun  never  shines, 
and  there  cast  it  away.  For  of  plants  they  believe,  that 
some  pertain  to  the  good  God,  and  others  again  to  the 
evil  Daemon  ;  and  likewise  they  think  that  such  animals 
as  dogs,  fowls,  and  urchins  belong  to  the  good ;  but  water 
animals  to  the  bad,  for  which  reason  they  account  him 
happy  that  kills  most  of  them.  These  men,  moreover, 
tell  us  a  great  many  romantic  things  about  these  gods, 
whereof  these  are  some  :  They  say  that  Oromazes,  spring¬ 
ing  from  purest  light,  and  Arimanius,  on  the  other  hand, 
from  pitchy  darkness,  these  two  are  therefore  at  war  with 
one  another.  And  that  Oromazes  made  six  gods,;j;  where¬ 
of  the  first  was  the  author  of  benevolence,  the  second  of 
truth,  the  third  of  justice,  and  the  rest,  one  of  wisdom, 

*  “  Plutarch  s  Morals.  Translated  from  the  Greek  by  several  hands. 
London.  Printed  for  W.  Taylor,  at  the  Ship  in  Pater-noster  Row. 
1718.”  This  passage  concerning  Zoroaster  is  from  the  “  Isis  and  Osiris” 
in  Yol.  IY.  of  this  old  translation.  We  have  retained  the  antique 
terminology  and  spelling.  (See  also  the  new  American  edition  of  this 
.translation.  Boston,  Little  and  Brown,  1871.) 

d  This  is  the  Haoma  spoken  of  on  page  202. 

J  These,  with  Ormazd,  are  the  seven  Amshaspands  enumerated  on 
page  197. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


177 


one  of  wealth,  and  a  third  of  that  pleasure  which  accrues 
from  good  actions ;  and  that  Arimanius  likewise  made 
the  like  number  of  contrary  operations  to  confront  them. 
After  this,  Oromazes,  having  first  trebled  his  own  magni¬ 
tude,  mounted  up  aloft,  so  far  above  the  sun  as  the  sun 
itself  above  the  earth,  and  so  bespangled  the  heavens  with 
stars.  But  one  star  (called  Sirius  or  the  Dog)  lie  set  as  a 
kind  of  sentinel  or  scout  before  all  the  rest.  And  after 
he  had  made  four-and- twenty  gods  more,  he  placed  them 
all  in  an  egg-shell.  But  those  that  were  made  by  Ari¬ 
manius  (being  themselves  also  of  the  like  number)  breaking 
a  hole  in  this  beauteous  and  glazed  egg-shell,  bad  things 
came  by  this  means  to  be  intermixed  with  good.  But  the 
fatal  time  is  now  approaching,  in  which  Arimanius,  who 
by  means  of  this  brings  plagues  and  famines  upon  the 
earth,  must  of  necessity  be  himself  utterly  extinguished 
and  destroyed  ;  at  which  time,  the  earth,  being  made  plain 
and  level,  there  will  be  one  life,  and  one  society  of  man¬ 
kind,  made  all  happy,  and  one  speech.  But  Tlieopompus 
saith,  that,  according  to  the  opinion  of  the  Magees,  each 
of  these  gods  subdues,  and  is  subdued  by  turns,  for  the 
space  of  three  thousand  years  apiece,  and  that  for  three 
thousand  years  more  they  quarrel  and  fight  and  destroy 
each  other’s  works ;  but  that  at  last  Pluto  shall  fail,  and 
mankind  shall  be  happy,  and  neither  need  food,  nor  yield 
a  shadow.*  And  that  the  god  who  projects  these  things 
doth,  for  some  time,  take  his  repose  and  rest ;  but  yet 
this  time  is  not  so  much  to  him  although  it  seems  so  to 
man,  whose  sleep  is  but  short.  Such,  then,  is  the  mythol¬ 
ogy  of  the  Magees.” 

We  shall  see  presently  how  nearly  this  account  corre¬ 
sponds  with  the  religion  of  the  Parsis,  as  it  was  devel¬ 
oped  out  of  the  primitive  doctrine  of  Zoroaster.-f* 

Besides  what  was  known  through  the  Greeks,  and  some 

*  See  the  account,  on  page  195,  of  these  four  periods  of  three  thousand 
years  each. 

t  Kleuker  (Anhang  zum  Zend-Avesta)  has  given  a  full  resume  of  the 
references  to  Zoroaster  and  his  religion  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  writers. 
More  recentbr,  Professor  Rapp  of  Tiibingen  has  gone  over  the  same  ground 
in  a  very  instructive  essay  in  the  Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morgenlandis- 
chen  Gesellschaft.  (Leipzig,  1865.) 

8  * 


L 


178 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


accounts  contained  in  Arabian  and  Persian  writers,  there 
was,  until  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  no  certain  infor¬ 
mation  concerning  Zoroaster  and  his  teachings.  But  the 
enterprise,  energy,  and  scientific  devotion  of  a  young 
Frenchman  changed  the  whole  aspect  of  the  subject,  and 
wre  are  now  enabled  to  speak  with  some  degree  of  certainty 
concerning  this  great  teacher  and  his  doctrines. 

§  3.  Anqudil  du  Perron  and  liis  Discovery  of  the  Zend 

Avcsta. 

Anquetil  du  Perron,  born  at  Paris  in  1731,  devoted  him¬ 
self  early  to  the  study  of  Oriental  literature.  He  mas¬ 
tered  the  Hebrew,  Arabic,  and  Persian  languages,  and  by 
his  ardor  in  these  studies  attracted  the  attention  of  Ori¬ 
ental  scholars.  Meeting  one  day  in  the  Eoyal  Library 
with  a  fragment  of  the  Zend  Avesta,  he  was  seized  with 
the  desire  of  visiting  India,  to  recover  the  lost  books  of 
Zoroaster,  “  and  to  learn  the  Zend  language  in  which  they 
were  written,  and  also  the  Sanskrit,  so  as  to  be  able 
to  read  the  manuscripts  in  the  Bibliotheque  du  Roi,  which 
no  one  in  Paris  understood.”  *  His  friends  endeavored 
to  procure  him  a  situation  in  an  expedition  just  about 
to  sail ;  but  their  efforts  not  succeeding,  Du  Perron  en¬ 
listed  as  a  private  soldier,  telling  no  one  of  his  intention 
till  the  day  before  setting  out,  lest  he  should  be  prevented 
from  going.  He  then  sent  for  his  brother  and  took  leave 
of  him  with  many  tears,  resisting  all  the  efforts  made  to 
dissuade  him  from  his  purpose.  His  baggage  consisted  of 
a  little  linen,  a  Hebrew  Bible,  a  case  of  mathematical 
instruments,  and  the  works  of  Montaigne  and  Cliarron. 
A  ten  days’  march,  with  other  recruits,  through  wet  and 
cold,  brought  him  to  the  port  from  whence  the  expedition 
was  to  sail.  Here  he  found  that  the  government,  struck 
with  his  extraordinary  zeal  for  science,  had  directed  that  he 
should  have  his  discharge  and  a  small  salary  of  five  hun¬ 
dred  livres.  The  East  India  Company  (French)  gave  him 
a  passage  gratis,  and  he  set  sail  for  India,  February  7,  1755, 
being  then  twenty-four  years  old.  The  first  two  years  in 

*  Anq.  du  Perron,  Zend  Avesta;  Disc.  Prelim.,  p.  vi. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


179 


India  were  almost  lost  to  him  for  purposes  of  science,  on 
account  of  his  sicknesses,  travels,  and  the  state  of  the 
country  disturbed  by  war  between  England  and  France.* 
He  travelled  afoot  and  on  horseback  over  a  great  part  of 
Ilindostan,  saw  the  worship  of  Juggernaut  and  the  monu¬ 
mental  caves  of  Ellora,  and,  in  1759,  arrived  at  Surat, 
where  was  the  Pars!  community  from  which  he  hoped 
for  help  in  obtaining  the  object  of  his  pursuit.  By  perse¬ 
verance  and  patience  he  succeeded  in  persuading  the  Des- 
tours,  or  priests,  of  these  fire-worshippers,  to  teach  him 
the  Zend  language  and  to  furnish  him  with  manuscripts 
of  the  Avesta.  With  one  hundred  and  eighty  valuable 
manuscripts  he  returned  to  Europe,  and  published,  in  1771, 
his  great  work,  —  the  Avesta  translated  into  French,  with 
notes  and  dissertations.  He  lived  through  the  French 
Revolution,  shut  up  with  his  books,  and  immersed  in  his 
Oriental  studies,  and  died,  after  a  life  of  continued  labor, 
in  1805.  Immense  erudition  and  indomitable  industry 
were  joined  in  Anquetil  du  Perron  to  a  pure  love  of 
truth  and  an  excellent  heart. 

For  many  years  after  the  publication  of  the  Avesta 
its  genuineness  and  authenticity  were  a  matter  of  dispute 
among  the  learned  men  of  Europe;  Sir  William  Jones 
especially  denying  it  to  be  an  ancient  work,  or  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  Zoroaster.  But  almost  all  modern  writers  of  emi¬ 
nence  now  admit  both.  Already  in  1826  Heeren  said  that 
these  books  had  “  stood  the  fiery  ordeal  of  criticism.”  “  Few 
remains  of  antiquity,”  he  remarks,  “  have  undergone  such 
attentive  examination  as  the  books  of  the  Zend  Avesta. 
This  criticism  has  turned  out  to  their  advantage  ;  the  gen¬ 
uineness  of  the  principal  compositions,  especially  of  the 
Vendidad  and  Izeschne  (Ya^na),  has  been  demonstrated; 
and  we  may  consider  as  completely  ascertained  all  that 
regards  the  rank  of  each  book  of  the  Zend  Avesta.” 

*  At  the  time  Anquetil  du  Perron  was  thus  laboring  in  the  cause  of  sci¬ 
ence  in  India,  two  other  men  were  in  the  same  region  devoting  themselves 
with  equal  ardor  to  very  different  objects.  Clive  was  laying  the  founda¬ 
tions  of  the  British  dominion  in  India  ;  Schwartz  was  giving  himself  up  to 
a  life  of  toil  in  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  Hindoos.  How  little  would 
these  three  men  have  sympathized  with  each  other,  or  appreciated  each 
other’s  work  !  And  yet  how  important  to  the  progress  of  humanity  was 
that  of  each  J 


180 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Bhode  (one  of  the  first  of  scholars  of  his  day  in  this  de¬ 
partment)  says :  “  There  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  these 
are  the  books  ascribed  in  the  most  ancient  times  to  Zoro¬ 
aster.”  Of  the  Yendidad  he  says:  “It  has  both  the  in¬ 
ward  and  outward  marks  of  the  highest  antiquity,  so  that 
we  fear  not  to  say  that  only  prejudice  or  ignorance  could 
doubt  it.”  * * * § 


§  4.  Epoch  of  Zoroaster.  What  do  we  know  of  him  ? 

As  to  the  age  of  these  hooks,  however,  and  the  period 
at  which  Zoroaster  lived,  there  is  the  greatest  difference 
of  opinion.  He  is  mentioned  by  Plato  (Alcibiades,  I.  37), 
who  speaks  of  “  the  magic  (or  religious  doctrines)  of  Zoro¬ 
aster  the  Ormazdian”  (jxayeiav —  ZcopoaVrpou  toD 'Qpopd^ou).-)- 
As  Plato  speaks  of  his  religion  as  something  established  in 
the  form  of  Magism,  or  the  system  of  the  Medes,  in  West 
Iran,  while  the  Avesta  appears  to  have  originated  in  Bac- 
tria,  or  East  Iran,|  this  already  carries  the  age  of  Zoro¬ 
aster  hack  to  at  least  the  sixth  or  seventh  century  before 
Christ.  When  the  Avesta  was  written,  Bactria  was  an 
independent  monarchy.  Zoroaster  is  represented  as  teach¬ 
ing  under  King  Vistaqpa.  But  the  Assyrians  conquered 
Bactria  B.  c.  1200,  which  was  the  last  of  the  Iranic 
kingdoms,  they  having  previously  vanquished  the  Medes, 
Hyrcanians,  Parthians,  Persians,  etc.  As  Zoroaster  must 
have  lived  before  this  conquest,  his  period  is  taken  hack 
to  a  still  more  remote  time,  about  B.  c.  1300  or  B.  c.  1250.  § 

*  And  with  this  conclusion  the  later  scholars  agree.  Burnouf,  Lassen, 
Spiegel,  Westergaard,  Hang,  Bunsen,  Max  Muller,  Roth,  all  accept  the 
Zend  Avesta  as  containing  in  the  main,  if  not  the  actual  words  of  Zoroas¬ 
ter,  yet  authentic  reminiscences  of  his  teaching.  The  Gathas  of  the  Yayna 
are  now  considered  to  be  the  oldest  part  of  the  Avesta,  as  appears  from 
the  investigations  of  Haug  and  others.  (See  Dr.  Martin  Haug’s  transla¬ 
tion  and  commentary  of  the  Five  Gathas  of  Zarathustra.  Leipzig,  1860.) 

T  Even  good  scholars  often  follow  each  other  in  a  false  direction  for 
want  of  a  little  independent  thinking.  The  Greek  of  Plato  was  translated 
by  a  long  succession  of  writers,  “Zoroaster  the  son  of  Oromazes,”  until 
some  one  happened  to  think  that  this  genitive  might  imply  a  different 
relation. 

X  Duncker  (Gesch.  des  Alterthums,  B.  II.)  gives  at  length  the  reasons 
which  prove  Zoroaster  and  the  Avesta  to  have  originated  in  Bactria. 

§  Duncker  (B.  II.  s.  483).  So  Dollinger. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AYESTA. 


181 


It  is  difficult  to.  be  more  precise  than  this.  Bunsen  in¬ 
deed  * * * §  suggests  that  “  the  date  of  Zoroaster,  as  fixed  by 
Aristotle,  cannot  be  said  to  be  so  very  irrational.  He  and 
Eudoxus,  according  to  Pliny,  place  him  six  thousand 
years  before  the  death  of  Plato  ;  Hermippus,  five  thousand 
years  before  the  Trojan  war,”  or  about  b.  c.  6300  or  b.  c. 
6350.  But  Bunsen  adds:  “At  the  present  stage  of  the 
inquiry  the  question  whether  this  date  is  set  too  high 
cannot  be  answered  either  in  the  negative  or  affirmative.” 
Spiegel,  in  one  of  his  latest  works,' j  considers  Zoroaster 
as  a  neighbor  and  contemporary  of  Abraham,  therefore 
as  living  b.  c.  2000  instead  of  B.  c.  6350.  Professor  Whit¬ 
ney  of  New  Haven  places  the  epoch  of  Zoroaster  at  “  least 
B.  c.  1000,”  and  adds  that  all  attempts  to  reconstruct 
Persian  chronology  or  history  prior  to  the  reign  of  the 
first  Sassanid  have  been  relinquished  as  futile.J  Doll- 
inger  §  thinks  he  may  have  been  “  somewhat  later  than 
Moses,  perhaps  about  b.  c.  1300,”  but  says,  “it  is  impossi¬ 
ble  to  fix  precisely”  when  he  lived.  Rawlinson||  merely 
remarks  that  Berosus  places  him  anterior  to  B.  c.  2234. 
Haug  is  inclined  to  date  the  Gathas,  the  oldest  songs 
of  the  Avesta,  as  early  as  the  time  of  Moses.  IF  Eapp,  ** 
after  a  thorough  comparison  of  ancient  writers,  concludes 
that  Zoroaster  lived  B.  c.  1200  or  1300.  In  this  he  agrees 
with  Duncker,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  decided  upon  the 
same  date.  It  is  not  far  from  the  period  given  by  the 
oldest  Greek  writer  who  speaks  of  Zoroaster,  —  Xanthus 
of  Sardis,  a  contemporary  of  Darius.  It  is  the  period 
given  by  Cephalion,  a  writer  of  the  second  century,  who 
takes  it  from  three  independent  sources.  We  have  no 
sources  now  open  to  us  which  enable  us  to  come  nearer 
than  this  to  the  time  in  which  he  lived. 

Nor  is  anything  known  with  certainty  of  the  place 
where  he  lived  or  the  events  of  his  life.  Most  modern 

*  Egypt’s  Place  in  Universal  History,  Yol.  ITT.  p.  471. 

+  Eran,  das  Land  zwischen  dem  Indus  und  Tigris. 

J  Journal  of  the  Am.  Or.  Soc.,  Vol.  V.  No.  2,  p.  353. 

§  The  Gentile  and  Jew,  Yol.  I.  p.  380. 

||  Five  Great  Monarchies,  Vol.  III.  p.  94. 

H  Essays,  &c.,  by  Martin  Haug,  p.  255. 

**  Die  Religion  und  Sitte  der  Perser.  Yon  Dr.  Adolf  Rapp.  (1865.) 


182 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


writers  suppose  that  he  resided  in  Bactria.  Haug  main¬ 
tains  that  the  language  of  the  Zend  books  is  Bactrian.* 
A  highly  mythological  and  fabulous  life  of  Zoroaster, 
translated  by  Anquetil  du  Perron,  called  the  Zartusht- 
Namaly)"  describes  him  as  going  to  Iran  in  his  thirtieth 
year,  spending  twenty  years  in  the  desert,  working  mira¬ 
cles  during  ten  years,  and  giving  lessons  of  philosophy  in 
Babylon,  with  Pythagoras  as  his  pupil.  All  this  is  based 
on  the  theory  (now  proved  to  be  false)  of  his  living  in  the 
time  of  Darius.  “  The  language  of  the  Avesta,”  says  Max 
Mttller,  “  is  so  much  more  primitive  than  the  inscriptions 
of  Darius,  that  many  centuries  must  have  passed  between 
the  two  periods  represented  by  these  two  strata  of  lan¬ 
guage.”  I  These  inscriptions  are  in  the  Achsemenian  dia¬ 
lect,  which  is  the  Zend  in  a  later  stage  of  linguistic  growth. 

§  5.  Spirit  of  Zoroaster  and  of  his  Religion. 

It  is  not  likely  that  Zoroaster  ever  saw  Pythagoras  or 
even  Abraham.  But  though  absolutely  nothing  is  known 
of  the  events  of  his  life,  there  is  not  the  least  doubt  of  his 
existence  nor  of  his  character.  He  has  left  the  impress 
of  his  commanding  genius  on  great  regions,  various  races, 
and  long  periods  of  time.  His  religion,  like  that  of  the 
Buddha,  is  essentially  a  moral  religion.  Each  of  them 
was  a  revolt  from  the  Pantheism  of  India,  in  the  interest 
of  morality,  human  freedom,  and  the  progress  of  the  race. 
They  differ  in  this,  that  each  takes  hold  of  one  side 
of  morality,  and  lets  go  the  opposite.  Zoroaster  bases  his 
law  on  the  eternal  distinction  between  right  and  wrong ; 
Sakya-muni,  on  the  natural  laws  and  their  consequences, 
either  good  or  evil.  Zoroaster’s  law  is,  therefore,  the  law 
of  justice  ;  Sakya-muni’s,  the  law  of  mercy.  The  one 
makes  the  supreme  good  to  consist  in  truth,  duty,  right  ; 
the  other,  in  love,  benevolence,  and  kindness.  Zoroaster 
teaches  providence :  the  monk  of  India  teaches  prudence. 

*  Bunsen,  Egypt,  Vol.  III.  p.  455. 

+  Written  in  the  thirteenth  century  after  Christ.  An  English  transla¬ 
tion  may  be  found  in  Dr.  J.  Wilson’s  “Parsi  Religion.” 

:£  Chips,  Yol.  I.  p.  88. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AYESTA. 


183 


Zoroaster  aims  at  holiness,  the  Buddha  at  merit.  Zoro¬ 
aster  teaches  and  emphasizes  creation  :  the  Buddha  knows 
nothing  of  creation,  but  only  nature  or  law.  All  these 
oppositions  run  back  to  a  single  root.  Both  are  moral 
reformers ;  but  the  one  moralizes  according  to  the  method 
of  Bishop  Butler,  the  other  after  that  of  Archdeacon 
Paley.  Zoroaster  cognizes  all  morality  as  having  its  root 
within,  in  the  eternal  distinction  between  right  and  wrong 
motive,  therefore  in  God ;  but  Sakya-muni  finds  it  out¬ 
side  of  the  soul,  in  the  results  of  good  and  evil  action, 
therefore  in  the  nature  of  things.  The  method  of  sal¬ 
vation,  therefore,  according  to  Zoroaster,  is  that  of  an 
eternal  battle  for  good  against  evil ;  but  according  to  the 
Buddha,  it  is  that  of  self-culture  and  virtuous  activity. 

Both  of  these  systems,  as  being  essentially  moral 
systems  in  the  interest  of  humanity,  proceed  from  per¬ 
sons.  For  it  is  a  curious  fact,  that,  while  the  essentially 
spiritualistic  religions  are  ignorant  of  their  founders,  all 
the  moral  creeds  of  the  world  proceed  from  a  moral 
source,  i.  e.  a  human  will.  Brahmanism,  Gnosticism,  the 
Sufism  of  Persia,  the  Mysteries  of  Egypt  and  Greece, 
Eeo-Platonism,  the  Christian  Mvsticism  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  —  these  have,  strictly  speaking,  no  founder.  Every 
tendency  to  the  abstract,  to  the  infinite,  ignores  person¬ 
ality.*  Individual  mystics  we  know,  but  never  the 
founder  of  any  such  system.  The  religions  in  which  the 
moral  element  is  depressed,  as  those  of  Babylon,  Assyria, 
Egypt,  Greece,  Borne,  are  also  without  personal  founders. 
But  moral  religions  are  the  religions  of  persons,  and  so 
we  have  the  systems  of  Confucius,  Buddha,  Zoroaster, 
Moses,  Mohammed.*!"  The  Protestant  Beformation  was  a 
protest  of  the  moral  nature  against  a  religion  which  had 
become  divorced  from  morality.  Accordingly  we  have 
Luther  as  the  founder  of  Protestantism ;  but  mediaeval 
Christianity  grew  up  with  no  personal  leader. 

*  So  Mr.  Emerson,  in  one  of  those  observations  which  give  us  a  sys¬ 
tem  of  philosophy  in  a  sentence,  says,  “The  soul  knows  no  persons.” 
Perhaps  he  should  have  said,  “The  Spirit.” 

+  Islam  is,  in  this  sense,  a  moral  religion,  its  root  consisting  in  obe¬ 
dience  to  Allah  and  his  prophet.  Sufism,  a  Mohammedan  mysticism,  is 
a  heresy. 


184 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  whole  religion  of  the  Avesta  revolves  around  the 
person  of  Zoroaster,  or  Zarathustra.  In  the  oldest  part  of 
the  sacred  books,  the  Gathas  of  the  Yagna,  he  is  called  the 
pure  Zarathustra,  good  in  thought,  speech,  and  work.  It 
is  said  that  Zarathustra  alone  knows  the  precepts  of 
Ahura-Mazda  (Ormazd),  and  that  he  shall  be  made  skil¬ 
ful  in  speech.  In  one  of  the  Gathas  he  expresses  the  de¬ 
sire  of  bringing  knowledge  to  the  pure,  in  the  power  of 
Ormazd,  so  as  to  be  to  them  strong  joy  (Spiegel,  Gatha 
Ustvaiti,  XLII.  8),  or,  as  Haug  translates  the  same  pas¬ 
sage  (Die  Gathas  des  Zarathustra,  II.  8)  :  “I  will  swear 
hostility  to  the  liars,  but  be  a  strong  help  to  the  truthful.” 
He  prays  for  truth,  declares  himself  the  most  faithful  ser¬ 
vant  in  the  world  of  Ormazd  the  Wise  One,  and  therefore 
begs  to  know  the  best  thing  to  do.  As  the  J ewish  proph¬ 
ets  tried  to  escape  their  mission,  and  called  it  a  burden, 
and  went  to  it  “  in  the  heat  and  bitterness  of  their  spirit,” 
so  Zoroaster  says  (according  to  Spiegel) :  “  When  it  came 
to  me  through  your  prayer,  I  thought  that  the  spreading 
abroad  of  your  law  through  men  was  something  difficult.” 

Zoroaster  was  one  of  those  who  was  oppressed  with  the 
sight  of  evil.  But  it  was  not  outward  evil  which  most 
tormented  him,  but  spiritual  evil,  —  evil  having  its  origin 
in  a  depraved  heart  and  a  will  turned  away  from  goodness. 
His  meditations  led  him  to  the  conviction  that  all  the 
woe  of  the  world  had  its  root  in  sin,  and  that  the  origin 
of  sin  was  to  be  found  in  the  demonic  world.  He  might 
have  used  the  language  of  the  Apostle  Paul  and  said, 
“  We  wrestle  not  with  flesh  and  blood,”  —  that  is,  our 
struggle  is  not  with  man,  but  with  principles  of  evil, 
rulers  of  darkness,  spirits  of  wickedness  in  the  super¬ 
natural  world.  Deeply  convinced  that  a  great  struggle 
was  going  on  between  the  powers  of  light  and  darkness, 
he  called  on  all  good  men  to  take  part  in  the  war,  and 
battle  for  the  good  God  against  the  dark  and  foul  tempter. 

Great  physical  calamities  added  to  the  intensity  of  this 
conviction.  It  appears  that  about  the  period  of  Zoro¬ 
aster,  some  geological  convulsions  had  changed  the  climate 
of  Northern  Asia,  and  very  suddenly  produced  severe 
cold  where  before  there  had  been  an  almost  tropical  tern- 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


185 


perature.  The  first  Fargard  of  the  Yendidad  has  been 
lately  translated  by  both  Spiegel  and  Hang,  and  begins  by 
speaking  of  a  good  country,  Aryana-Yaejo,  which  was 
created  a  region  of  delight  by  Ahura-Mazda  (Ormazd). 
Then  it  adds  that  the  “  evil  being,  Angra-Mainyus  (Ahri- 
man),  full  of  death,  created  a  mighty  serpent,  and  winter, 
the  work  of  the  Devas.  Ten  months  of  winter  are  there, 
two  months  of  summer.”  Then  follows,  in  the  original 
document,  this  statement :  “  Seven  months  of  summer 
are  (were  ?)  there ;  five  months  of  winter  were  there.  The 
latter  are  cold  as  to  water,  cold  as  to  earth,  cold  as  to 
trees.  There  is  the  heart  of  winter;  there  all  around 
falls  deep  snow.  There  is  the  worst  of  evils.”  This  pas¬ 
sage  has  been  set  aside  as  an  interpolation  by  both  Spiegel 
and  Haug.  But  they  give  no  reason  for  supposing  it  such, 
except  the  difficulty  of  reconciling  it  with  the  preceding 
passage.  This  difficulty,  however,  disappears,  if  we  sup¬ 
pose  it  intended  to  describe  a  great  climatic  change,  by 
which  the  original  home  of  the  Aryans,  Aryana-Yaejo,  be¬ 
came  suddenly  very  much  colder  than  before.  Such  a 
change,  if  it  took  place,  was  probably  the  cause  of  the 
emigration  which  transferred  this  people  from  Aryana- 
Yaejo  (Old  Iran)  to  New  Iran,  or  Persia.  Such  a  history 
of  emigration  Bunsen  and  Haug  suppose  to  be  contained 
in  this  first  Fargard  (or  chapter)  of  the  Yendidad.  If  so, 
it  takes  us  back  further  than  the  oldest  part  of  the  Yeda, 
and  gives  the  progress  of  the  Aryan  stream  to  the  south 
from  its  original  source  on  the  great  plains  of  Central 
Asia,  till  it  divided  into  two  branches,  one  flowing  into 
Persia,  the  other  into  India.  The  first  verse  of  this 
venerable  document  introduces  Ormazd  as  saying  that  he 
had  created  new  regions,  desirable  as  homes ;  for  had  he 
not  done  so,  all  human  beings  would  have  crowded  into 
this  Aryana-Yaejo.  Thus  in  the  very  first  verse  of  the 
Yendidad  appears  the  affectionate  recollection  of  these 
emigrant  races  for  their  fatherland  in  Central  Asia,  and 
the  Zoroasterian  faith  in  a  creative  and  protective  Provi¬ 
dence.  The  awful  convulsion  which  turned  their  sum¬ 
mer  climate  into  the  present  Siberian  winter  of  ten  months’ 
duration  was  part  of  a  divine  plan.  Old  Iran  would  have 
been  too  attractive,  and  all  mankind  would  have  crowded 


186 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


into  that  Eden.  So  the  evil  Aliriman  was  permitted  to 
glide  into  it,  a  new  serpent  of  destruction,  and  its  seven 
months  of  summer  and  five  of  winter  were  changed  to  ten 
of  winter  and  two  of  summer.* 

This  Aryana-Vaejo,  Old  Iran,  the  primeval  seat  of  the 
great  Indo-European  race,  is  supposed  by  Haug  and  Bunsen 
to  be  situated  on  the  high  plains  northeast  of  Samarcand, 
between  the  thirty-seventh  and  fortieth  degrees  of  north 
latitude,  and  the  eighty-sixth  and  ninetieth  of  east  longi¬ 
tude.  This  region  has  exactly  the  climate  described,  —  ten 
months  of  winter  and  two  of  summer.  The  same  is  true 
of  Western  Thibet  and  most  of  Central  Siberia.  Malte- 
Brun  says :  “  The  winter  is  nine  or  ten  months  long  through 
almost  the  whole  of  Siberia.”  June  and  July  are  the  only 
months  wholly  free  from  snow.  On  the  parallel  of  60°,  the 
earth  on  the  28th  of  June  was  found  frozen,  at  a  depth  of 
three  feet. 

But  is  there  reason  to  think  that  the  climate  was  ever 
different  ?  Geologists  assure  us  that  “  great  oscillations  of 
climate  have  occurred  in  times  immediately  antecedent  to 
the  peopling  of  the  earth  by  man.”-)*  But  in  Central  and 
Northern  Asia  there  is  evidence  of  such  fluctuations  of 
temperature  in  a  much  more  recent  period.  In  1803,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Lena,  in  latitude  70°,  the  entire  body  of 
a  mammoth  fell  from  a  mass  of  ice  in  which  it  had  been 
entombed  perhaps  for  thousands  of  years,  but  with  the 
flesh  so  perfectly  preserved  that  it  was  immediately  de¬ 
voured  by  wolves.  Since  then  these  frozen  elephants 
have  been  found  in  great  numbers,  in  so  perfect  a  condition 
that  the  bulb  of  an  eye  of  one  of  them  is  in  the  Museum 
at  Moscow.  |  They  have  been  found  as  far  north  as  75°. 
Hence  Lyell  thinks  it  “  reasonable  to  believe  that  a  large 
region  in  Central  Asia,  including  perhaps  the  southern 
half  of  Siberia,  enjoyed  at  no  very  remote  period  in  the 
earth’s  history  a  temperate  climate,  sufficiently  mild  to  af¬ 
ford  food  for  numerous  herds  of  elephants  and  rhinoceroses.” 

*  Vendidad,  Farg.  I.  3.  “Therefore  Angra-Mainyus,  the  death-dealing, 
created  a  mighty  serpent  and  snow.”  The  serpent  entering  into  the  Iranic 
Eden  is  one  of  the  curious  coincidences  of  the  Iranic  and  Hebrew  traditions. 

t  Lyell,  Principles  of  Geology  (eighth  edition),  p.  77. 

X  Idem.,  p.  83.  A  similar  change  from  a  temperate  climate  to  ex¬ 
treme  cold  has  taken  place  in  Greenland  within  five  or  six  centuries. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


187 


Amid  these  terrible  convulsions  of  the  air  and  ground, 
these  antagonisms  of  outward  good  and  evil,  Zoroaster 
developed  his  belief  in  the  dualism  of  all  things.  To  his 
mind,  as  to  that  of  the  Hebrew  poet,  God  had  placed  all 
things  against  each  other,  two  and-  two.  No  Pantheistic 
optimism,  like  that  of  India,  could  satisfy  his  thought. 
He  could  not  say,  “  Whatever  is,  is  right  ” ;  some  things 
seemed  fatally  wrong.  The  world  was  a  scene  of  war,  not 
of  peace  and  rest.  Life  to  the  good  man  w7as  not  sleep, 
but  battle.  If  there  was  a  good  God  over  all,  as  he  de¬ 
voutly  believed,  there  was  also  a  spirit  of  evil,  of  awful 
power,  to  whom  we  were  not  to  yield,  but  with  whom  we 
should  do  battle.  In  the  far  distance  he  saw  the  triumph 
of  good ;  but  that  triumph  could  only  come  by  fighting 
the  good  fight  now.  But  his  weapons  were  not  carnal. 
“  Pure  thoughts  ”  going  out  into  “true  words  ”  and  result¬ 
ing  in  “  right  actions  ” ;  this  was  the  whole  duty  of  man. 

§  6.  Character '‘of  the  Zend  Avesta. 

A  few  passages,  taken  from  different  parts  of  the  Zend 
Avesta,  will  best  illustrate  these  tendencies,  and  show  how 
unlike  it  is,  in  its  whole  spirit,  to  its  sister,  the  Vedic  lit¬ 
urgy.  Twin  children  of  the  old  Aryan  stock,  they  must 
have  struggled  together  like  Esau  and  Jacob,  before  they 
were  born.  In  such  cases  we  see  how  superficial  is  the 
philosophy  which,  beginning  with  synthesis  instead  of 
analysis,  declares  the  unity  of  all  religions  before  it  has 
seen  their  differences.  There  is  indeed,  what  Cudwortli 
has  called  “  the  symphony  of  all  religions,”  but  it  cannot 
be  demonstrated  by  the  easy  process  of  gathering  a  few 
similar  texts  from  Confucius,  the  Vedas,  and  the  Gospels, 
and  then  announcing  that  they  all  teach  the  same  thing. 
We  must  first  find  the  specific  idea  of  each,  and  we  may 
then  be  able  to  show  how  each  of  these  may  take  its  place 
in  the  harmonious  working  of  universal  religion. 

If,  in  taking  up  the  Zend  Avesta,  we  expect  to  find  a 
system  of  theology  or  philosophy,  we  shall  be  disap¬ 
pointed.  It  is  a  liturgy, —  a  collection  of  hymns,  prayers, 
invocations,  thanksgivings.  It  contains  prayers  to  a  mul¬ 
titude  of  deities,  among  whom  Ormazd  is  always  counted 
supreme,  and  the  rest  only  his  servants. 


188 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


“  I  worship  and  adore,”  says  Zarathustra  (Zoroaster), 
*  the  Creator  of  all  things,  Ahura-Mazda  (Ormazd),  full 
of  light !  I  worship  the  Amesha-^pentas  (Amshaspands, 
the  seven  archangels,  or  protecting  spirits)  !  I  worship 
the  body  of  the  primal  Bull,  the  soul  of  the  Bull !  I  in¬ 
voke  thee,  0  Fire,  thou  son  of  Ormazd,  most  rapid  of  the 
Immortals !  I  invoke  Mithra,  the  lofty,  the  immortal, 
the  pure,  the  sun,  the  ruler,  the  quick  Horse,  the  eye  of 
Ormazd  !  I  invoke  the  holy  Sraosha,  gifted  with  holiness, 
and  Ba^nu  (spirit  of  justice),  and  Arstat  (spirit  of  truth) ! 
I  invoke  the  Fravashi  of  good  men,  the  Fravaslii  of  Or¬ 
mazd,  the  Fravashi  of  my  own  soul !  I  praise  the  good 
men  and  women  of  the  whole  world  of  purity  !  I  praise 
the  Haoma,  health-bringing,  golden,  with  moist  stalks.  I 
praise  Sraosha,  whom  four  horses  carry,  spotless,  bright- 
shining,  swifter  than  the  storms,  who,  without  sleeping, 
protects  the  world  in  the  darkness.” 

The  following  passages  are  from  the  oldest  part  of  the 
Avesta,  the  Gathas :  — 

“  Good  is  the  thought,  good  the  speech,,  good  the  work  of 
the  pure  Zarathustra.” 

“  I  desire  by  my  prayer  with  uplifted  hands  this  joy,  — the 
pure  works  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Mazda,  ....  a  disposition  to 
perform  good  actions,  ....  and  pure  gifts  for  both  worlds,  the 
bodily  and  spiritual.” 

“  I  have  intrusted  my  soul  to  Heaven,  ....  and  I  will  teach 
what  is  pure  so  long  as  I  can.” 

“  I  keep  forever  purity  and  good-mindedness.  Teach  thou 
me,  Ahura-Mazda,  out  of  thyself ;  from  heaven,  by  thy  mouth, 
whereby  the  world  first  arose.” 

“  Thee  have  I  thought,  0  Mazda,  as  the  first,  to  praise  with 
the  soul,  ....  active  Creator,  ....  Lord  of  the  worlds,  .  .  .  . 
Lord  of  good  things,  ....  the  first  fashioner,  .  ;  . .  who  made 
the  pure  creation,  ....  who  upholds  the  best  soul  with  his 
understanding.” 

“  I  praise  Ahura-Mazda,  who  has  created  the  cattle,  created 
the  water  and  good  trees,  the  splendor  of  light,  the  earth  and 
all  good.  We  praise  the  Fravashis  of  the  pure  men  and  wo¬ 
men,  —  whatever  is  fairest,  purest,  immortal.” 

“We  honor  the  good  spirit,  the  good  kingdom,  the  good 
law,  —  all  that  is  good.” 

_  “  Here  we  praise  the  soul  and  body  of  the  Bull,  then  our 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  A  VESTA. 


189 


own  souls,  the  souls  of  the  cattle  which  desire  to  maintain  us 
in  life,  ....  the  good  men  and  women,  ....  the  abode  of  the 
water,  ....  the  meeting  and  parting  of  the  ways,  ....  the 
mountains  which  make  the  waters  flow,  ....  the  strong  wind 
created  by  Ahura-Mazda,  ....  the  Hadma,  giver  of  increase, 
far  from  death.” 

“  Now  give  ear  to  me,  and  hear  !  the  Wise  Ones  have  cre¬ 
ated  all.  Evil  doctrine  shall  not  again  destroy  the  world.” 

“  In  the  beginning,  the  two  heavenly  Ones  spoke  —  the 
Good  to  the  Evil  —  thus  \  1  Our  souls,  doctrines,  words,  wrorks, 
do  not  unite  together.’  ” 

“  How  shall  I  satisfy  thee,  0  Mazda,  I,  who  have  little 
wealth,  few  menl  How  may  I  exalt  thee  according  to  my 
wish !  ....  I  will  be  contented  with  your  desires ;  this  is  the 
decision  of  my  understanding  and  of  my  souL” 

The  following  is  from  the  Khordah  Avesta :  — 

*  “  In  the  name  of  God,  the  giver,  forgiver,  rich  in  love, 
praise  be  to  the  name  of  Ormazd,  the  God  with  the  name, 
‘  Who  always  was,  always  is,  and  always  will  be  ’ ;  the  heavenly 
amongst  the  heavenly,  with  the  name  ‘  From  whom  alone  is 
derived  rule.’  Ormazd  is  the  greatest  ruler,  mighty,  wise,  cre¬ 
ator,  supporter,  refuge,  defender,  completer  of  good  works, 
overseer,  pure,  good,  and  just. 

“  With  all  strength  (bring  I)  thanks  ;  to  the  great  among 
beings,  who  created  and  destroyed,  and  through  his  own  de¬ 
termination  of  time,  strength,  wisdom,  is  higher  than  the  six 
Amshaspands,  the  circumference  of  heaven,  the  shining  sun, 
the  brilliant  moon,  the  wind,  the  wTater,  the  fire,  the  earth,  the 
trees,  the  cattle,  the  metals,  mankind. 

“  Offering  and  praise  to  that  Lord,  the  completer  of  good 
works,  who  made  men  greater  than  all  earthly  beings,  and 
through  the  gift  of  speech  created  them  to  rule  the  creatures, 
as  warriors  against  the  Daevas.* 

“  Praise  the  omniscience  of  God,  who  hath  sent  through  the 
holy  Zarathustra  peace  for  the  creatures,  the  wisdom  of  the 
law, — the  enlightening  derived  from  the  heavenly  under¬ 
standing,  and  heard  with  the  ears,  —  wisdom  and  guidance  for 
all  beings  who  are,  were,  and  will  be,  (and)  the  wisdom  of  wis¬ 
doms  ;  wThich  effects  freedom  from  hell  for  the  soul  at  the 
bridge,  and  leads  it  over  to  that  Paradise,  the  brilliant,  sweet¬ 
smelling  of  the  pure. 

*  The  Daevas,  or  evil  spirits  of  the  Zend  hooks,  are  the  same  as  the 
Devas,  or  Gods  of  the  Sanskrit  religion. 


190 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


“  All  good  do  I  accept  at  thy  command,  0  God,  and  think, 
speak,  and  do  it.  I  believe  in  the  pure  law ;  by  every  good  work 
seek  I  forgiveness  for  all  sins.  I  keep  pure  for  myself  the  ser¬ 
viceable  work  and  abstinence  from  the  unprofitable.  I  keep 
pure  the  six  powers,  —  thought,  speech,  work,  memory,  mind, 
and  understanding.  According  to  thy  will  am  I  able  to  accom¬ 
plish,  0  accomplisher  of  good,  thy  honor,  with  good  thoughts, 
good  words,  good  works. 

“  I  enter  on  the  shining  way  to  Paradise ;  may  the  fearful 
terror  of  hell  not  overcome  me  !  May  I  step  over  the  bridge 
Chinevat,  may  I  attain  Paradise,  with  much  perfume,  and  all 
enjoyments,  and  all  brightness. 

“Praise  to  the  Overseer,  the  Lord,  who  rewards  those  who 
accomplish  good  deeds  according  to  his  own  wish,  purifies  at 
last  the  obedient,  and  at  last  purifies  even  the  wicked  one  of 
hell.  All  praise  be  to  the  creator,  Ormazd,  the  all-wise, 
mighty,  rich  in  might ;  to  the  seven  Amshaspands ;  to  Ized 
Bahram,  the  victorious  annihilator  of  foes.” 

“  HYMN  TO  A  STAR,. 

“  The  star  Tistrya  praise  we,  the  shining,  majestic,  with 
pleasant  good  dwelling,  light,  shining,  conspicuous,  going 
around,  healthful,  bestowing  joy,  great,  going  round  about 
from  afar,  with  shining  beams,  the  pure,  and  the  water  which 
makes  broad  seas,  good,  far-famed,  the  name  of  the  bull 
created  by  Mazda,  the  strong  kingly  majesty,  and  the  Frava- 
shi  of  the  holy  pure,  Zarathustra. 

“  For  his  brightness,  for  his  majesty,  will  I  praise  him,  the 
star  Tistrya,  with  audible  praise.  We  praise  the  star  Tistrya, 
the  brilliant,  majestic,  with  offerings,  with  Haoma  bound  with 
flesh,  with  Mauthra  which  gives  wisdom  to  the  tongue,  with 
word  and  deed,  with  offerings  with  right-spoken  speech.” 

“  The  star  Tistrya,  the  brilliant,  majestic,  we  praise,  who 
glides  so  softly  to  the  sea  like  an  arrow,  who  follows  the  heav¬ 
enly  will,  who  is  a  terrible  pliant  arrow,  a  very  pliant  arrow, 
worthy  of  honor  among  those  worthy  of  honor,  who  comes 
from  the  damp  mountain  to  the  shining  mountain.” 

“HYMN  TO  MITHRA. 

“  Mithra,  whose  long  arms  grasp  forwards  here  with  Mithra- 
strength  ;  that  which  is  in  Eastern  India  he  seizes,  and  that 
which  [is]  in  the  Western  he  smites,  and  what  is  on  the 
steppes  of  Rauha,  and  what  is  at  the  ends  of  this  earth. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


191 


“  Thou,  0  Mithra,  dost  seize  these,  reaching  out  thy  arms. 
The  unrighteous  destroyed  through  the  just  is  gloomy  in  soul. 
Thus  thinks  the  unrighteous  :  Mithra,  the  artless,  does  not  see 
all  these  evil  deeds,  all  these  lies. 

“  But  I  think  in  my  soul  :  No  earthly  man  with  a  hundred¬ 
fold  strength  thinks  so  much  evil  as  Mithra  with  heavenly 
strength  thinks  good.  No  earthly  man  with  a  hundred- fold 
strength  speaks  so  much  evil  as  Mithra  with  heavenly  strength 
speaks  good.  No  earthly  man  with  a  hundred-fold  strength 
does  so  much  evil  as  Mithra  with  heavenly  strength  does  good. 

“  With  no  earthly  man  is  the  hundred-fold  greater  heavenly 
understanding  allied  as  the  heavenly  understanding  allies  it¬ 
self  to  the  heavenly  Mithra,  the  heavenly.  No  earthly  man 
with  a  hundred-fold  strength  hears  with  the  ears  as  the 
heavenly  Mithra,  who  possesses  a  hundred  strengths,  sees 
every  liar.  Mightily  goes  forward  Mithra,  powerful  in  rule 
marches  he  onwards  ;  fair  visual  power,  shining  from  afar, 
gives  he  to  the  eyes.” 

“A  CONFESSION,  OR  PATET* 

“  I  repent  of  all  sins.  All  wicked  thoughts,  words,  and  works 
which  I  have  meditated  in  the  world,  corporeal,  spiritual, 
earthly,  and  heavenly,  I  repent  of,  in  your  presence,  ye  be¬ 
lievers.  0  Lord,  pardon  through  the  three  words. 

“  I  confess  myself  a  Mazdaya^ian,  a  Zarathustrian,  an  oppo¬ 
nent  of  the  Daevas,  devoted  to  belief  in  Ahura,  for  praise, 
adoration,  satisfaction,  and  laud.  As  it  is  the  will  of  God, 
let  the  Zaota  say  to  me,  Thus  announces  the  Lord,  the  Pure 
out  of  Holiness,  let  the  wise  speak. 

“  I  praise  all  good  thoughts,  words,  and  works,  through 
thought,  word,  and  deed.  I  curse  all  evil  thoughts,  words, 
and  works  away  from  thought,  word,  and  deed.  I  lay  hold 
on  all  good  thoughts,  words,  and  works,  with  thoughts, 
words,*  and  works,  i.  e.  I  perform  good  actions,  I  dismiss  all 
evil  thoughts,  words,  and  works,  from  thoughts,  words,  and 
works,  i.  e.  I  commit  no  sins. 

“  I  give  to  you,  ye  who  are  Amshaspands,  offering  and  praise, 
with  the  heart,  with  the  body,  with  my  own  vital  powers,  body 
and  soul.  The  whole  powers  which  I  possess  I  possess  in  de¬ 
pendence  on  the  Yazatas.  To  possess  in  dependence  upon  the 

*  The  Patets  are  formularies  of  confession.  They  are  written  in  Parsi, 
with  occasional  passages  inserted  in  Zend. 


192 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Yazatas  means  (as  much  as)  this :  if  anything  happens  so  that 
it  behoves  to  give  the  body  for  the  sake  of  the  soul;  I  give  it 
to  them. 

“  I  praise  the  best  purity,  I  hunt  away  the  Devs,  I  am  thank¬ 
ful  for  the  good  of  the  Creator  Ormazd,  with  the  opposition 
and  unrighteousness  which  come  from  Gana-mainyo,  am  I 
contented  and  agreed  in  the  hope  of  the  resurrection.  The 
Zarathustrian  law  created  by  Ormazd  I  take  as  a  plummet. 
For  the  sake  of  this  way  I  repent  of  all  sins. 

“  I  repent  of  the  sins  which  can  lay  hold  of  the  character  of 
men,  or  which  have  laid  hold  of  my  character,  small  and  great 
which  are  committed  amongst  men,  the  meanest  sins  as  much 
as  is  (and)  can  be,  yet  more  than  this,  namely,  all  evil 
thoughts,  words,  and  works  which  (I  have  committed)  for  the 
sake  of  others,  or  others  for  my  sake,  or  if  the  hard  sin  has 
seized  the  character  of  an  evil-doer  on  my  account,  —  such 
sins,  thoughts,  words,  and  works,  corporeal,  mental,  earthly, 
heavenly,  I  repent  of  with  the  three  words :  pardon,  0  Lord, 
I  repent  of  the  sins  with  Patet. 

“  The  sins  against  father,  mother,  sister,  brother,  wife,  child, 
against  spouses,  against  the  superiors,  against  my  own  rela¬ 
tions,  against  those  living  with  me,  against  those  who  possess 
equal  property,  against  the  neighbors,  against  the  inhabitants 
of  the  same  town,  against  servants,  every  unrighteousness 
through  which  I  have  been  amongst  sinners,  —  of  these  sins 
repent  I  with  thoughts,  words,  and  works,  corporeal  as  spir¬ 
itual,  earthly  as  heavenly,  with  the  three  words :  pardon,  0 
Lord,  I  repent  of  sins. 

“  The  defilement  with  dirt  and  corpses,  the  bringing  of  dirt 
and  corpses  to  the  water  and  fire,  or  the  bringing  of  fire  and 
water  to  dirt  and  corpses ;  the  omission  of  reciting  the  Avesta 
in  mind,  of  strewing  about  hair,  nails,  and  toothpicks,  of  not 
washing  the  hands,  all  the  rest  which  belongs  to  the  category 
of  dirt  and  corpses,  if  I  have  thereby  come  among  the  sinners, 
so  repent  I  of  all  these  sins  with  thoughts,  words,  and  works, 
corporeal  as  spiritual,  earthly  as  heavenly,  with  the  three 
words :  pardon,  0  Lord,  I  repent  of  sin. 

“  That  which  was  the  wish  of  Ormazd  the  Creator,  and  I 
ought  to  have  thought,  and  have  not  thought,  what  I  ought 
to  have  spoken  and  have  not  spoken,  what  I  ought  to  have 
done  and  have  not  done  ;  of  these  sins  repent  I  with  thoughts, 
words,  and  works,”  etc. 

“  That  which  was  the  wish  of  Ahriman,  and  I  ought  not  to 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


193 


have  thought  and  yet  have  thought,  what  I  ought  not  to  have 
spoken  and  yet  have  spoken,  what  I  ought  not  to  have  done 
and  yet  have  done  ;  of  these  sins  I  repent,”  etc. 

“  Of  all  and  every  kind  of  sin  which  I  have  committed  against 
the  creatures  of  Ormazd,  as  stars,  moon,  sun,  and  the  red 
burning  fire,  the  dog,  the  birds,  the  five  kinds  of  animals,  the 
other  good  creatures  which  are  the  property  of  Ormazd,  be¬ 
tween  earth  and  heaven,  if  I  have  become  a  sinner  against  any 
of  these,  I  repent,”  etc. 

“  Of  pride,  haughtiness,  covetousness,  slandering  the  dead, 
anger,  envy,  the  evil  eye,  shamelessness,  looking  at  with  evil 
intent,  looking  at  with  evil  concupiscence,  stiff-neckedness, 
discontent  with  the  godly  arrangements,  self-willedness,  sloth, 
despising  others,  mixing  in  strange  matters,  unbelief,  opposing 
the  Divine  powers,  false  witness,  false  judgment,  idol-worship, 
running  naked,  running  with  one  shoe,  the  breaking  of  the 
low  (midday)  prayer,  the  omission  of  the  (midday)  prayer, 
theft,  robbery,  whoredom,  witchcraft,  worshipping  with  sorcer¬ 
ers,  unchastity,  tearing  the  hair,  as  well  as  all  other  kinds  of 
sin  which  are  enumerated  in  this  Patet,  or  not  enumerated, 
which  I  am  aware  of,  or  not  aware  of,  which  are  appointed  or 
not  appointed,  which  I  should  have  bewailed  with  obedience 
before  the  Lord,  and  have  not  bewailed,  —  of  these  sins  repent 
I  with  thoughts,  words,  and  works,  corporeal  as  spiritual,  earth¬ 
ly  as  heavenly.  0  Lord,  pardon,  I  repent  with  the  three 
words,  with  Patet. 

“  If  I  have  taken  on  myself  the  Patet  for  any  one  and  have 
not  performed  it,  and  misfortune  has  thereby  come  upon  his 
soul  or  his  descendants,  I  repent  of  the  sin  for  every  one  with 
thoughts,”  etc. 

“With  all  good  deeds  am  I  in  agreement,  with  all  sins  am  I 
not  in  agreement,  for  the  good  am  I  thankful,  with  iniquity 
am  I  contented.  With  the  punishment  at  the  bridge,  with  the 
bonds  and  tormentings  and  chastisements  of  the  mighty  of  the 
law,  with  the  punishment  of  the  three  nights  (after)  the  fifty- 
seven  years  am  I  contented  and  satisfied.” 

The  Avesta,  then,  is  not  a  system  of  dogmatics,  but  a 
book  of  worship.  It  is  to  be  read  in  private  by  the  laity, 
or  to  be  recited  by  the  priests  in  public.  Nevertheless, 
just  such  a  book  may  be  the  best  help  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  religious  opinions  of  an  age.  The  deepest  convic¬ 
tions  come  to  light  in  such  a  collection,  not  indeed  in  a 

9  M 


194  ' 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


systematic  statement,  but  in  sincerest  utterance.  It  will 
contain  the  faith  of  the  heart  rather  than  the  speculations 
of  the  intellect.  Such  a  work  can  hardly  be  other  than 
authentic ;  for  men  do  not  forge  liturgies,  and,  if  they  did, 
could  hardly  introduce  them  into  the  worship  of  a  reli¬ 
gious  community. 

The  A  vesta  consists  of  the  Vendidad,  of  which  twenty- 
two  Fargards,  or  chapters,  have  been  preserved  ;  the  Vis- 
pered,  in  twenty-seven ;  the  Yaqna,  in  seventy  ;  and  the 
Khordah  Avesta,  or  Little-Avesta,  which  contains  the 
Yashts,  Patets,  and  other  prayers  for  the  use  of  the  laity. 
Of  these,  Spiegel  considers  the  Gathas  of  the  Ya<pia  to 
be  the  oldest,  next  the  Yendidad,  lastly,  the  first  part  of 
the  YaQna,  and  the  Khordah  Avesta. 

§  7.  Later  Development  of  the  System  in  the  Bundehesch. 

The  Bundehesch  is  a  book  later  than  these,  and  yet,  in 
its  contents,  running  back  to  a  very  early  period.  Win- 
dischmann,*  who  has  recently  given  us  a  new  translation 
of  this  book,  says :  “  In  regard  to  the  Bundehesch,  I  am 
confident  that  closer  study  of  this  remarkable  book,  and 
a  more  exact  comparison  of  it  with  the  original  texts,  will 
change  the  unfavorable  opinion  hitherto  held  concerning 
it  into  one  of  great  confidence.  I  am  justified  in  believ¬ 
ing  that  its  author  has  given  us  mainly  only  the  ancient 
doctrine,  taken  by  him  from  original  texts,  most  of  which 
are  now  lost.  The  more  thoroughly  it  is  examined  the 
more  trustworthy  it  will  be  found  to  be.” 

The  following  summary  of  the  Pars!  system  is  mostly 
derived  from  the  Bundehesch,  and  the  later  writings  of  the 
Parsis.  We  have  abridged  it  from  Ehode.  In  the  time 
of  Zoroaster  himself,  it  was  probably  far  from  being  so 
fully  elaborated.  Only  the  germs  of  it  are  to  be  found  in 
the  elder  books  of  the  Avesta.  It  has  been  doubted  if 
the  doctrine  of  Zerana-Akerana,  or  the  Monad  behind  the 
Duad,  is  to  be  found  in  the  Avesta;  though  important 
texts  in  the  Vendidad  seem  indeed  to  imply  a  Supreme 

*  Zoroast.  Stud.  1863. 

t  Yendidad,  Fargard  XIX.  33,  44,  55. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


195 


and  Infinite  Being,  the  creator  both  of  Ormazd  and 
Ahriman. 

In  the  beginning,  the  Eternal  or  Absolute  Being  (Ze¬ 
rana-Akerana)  produced  two  other  'great  divine  beings. 
The  first,  who  remained  true  to  him,  was  Ahura-Mazda, 
King  of  Light.  The  other  was  Ahriman  (Angra-Mainyus), 
King  of  Darkness.  Ormazd  found  himself  in  a  world  of 
light  and  Ahriman  in  boundless  darkness,  and  the  two 
became  antagonists. 

The  Infinite  Being  (Zerana-Akerana)  now  determined, 
in  order  to  destroy  the  evil  which  Ahriman  had  caused, 
to  create  the  visible  world  by  Ormazd ;  and  he  fixed  its 
duration  at  twelve  thousand  years.  This  was  divided 
into  four  periods  of  three  thousand  years  each.  In  the 
first  period  Ormazd  should  rule  alone ;  in  the  second 
Ahriman  should  begin  to  operate,  but  still  be  subordinate ; 
in  the  third  they  should  both  rule  together ;  and  in  the 
fourth  Ahriman  should  have  the  ascendency. 

Ormazd  began  the  creation  by  bringing  forth  the 
Fereuers  (Fravashi).  Everything  which  has  been  cre¬ 
ated,  or  which  is  to  be  created,  has  its  Fravashi,  which 
contains  the  reason  and  basis  of  its  existence.  Even 
Ormazd  has  his  Fravashi  in  relation  to  Zerana-Akerana 
(the  Infinite).  A  spiritual  and  invisible  world  preceded, 
therefore,  this  visible  material  world  as  its  prototype. 

In  creating  the  material  world,  which  was  in  reality 
only  an  incorporation  of  the  spiritual  world  of  Fravashis, 
Ormazd  first  created  the  firm  vault  of  heaven,  and  the 
earth  on  which  it  rests.  On  the  earth  he  created  the  high 
mountain  Albordj  *  which  soared  upward  through  all  the 
spheres  of  the  heaven,  till  it  reached  the  primal  light,  and 
Ormazd  made  this  summit  his  abode.  From  this  summit 
the  bridge  Cliinevat  stretches  to  the  vault  of  heaven,  and 
to  Gorodman,  which  is  the  opening  in  the  vault  above 
Albordj.  Gorodman  is  the  dwelling  of  the  Fravashis  and 

*  The  Albordj  of  the  Zend  hooks  is  doubtless  the  modern  range  of  the 
Elbrooz.  This  mighty  chain  comes  from  the  Caucasus  into  the  northern 
frontier  of  Persia.  See  a  description  of  this  region  in  “Histoire  des 
Perses,  par  le  Comte  de  Gobineau.  Paris,  1869.” 


196 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


of  the  blessed,  and  the  bridge  leading  to  it  is  precisely 
above  the  abyss  Duzahk,  —  the  monstrous  gulf,  the  home 
of  Ahriman  beneath  the  earth. 

Ormazd,  who  knew  that  after  the  first  period  his  battle 
with  Ahriman  would  begin,  armed  himself,  and  created 
for  his  aid  the  whole  shining  host  of  heaven,  —  sun,  moon, 
and  stars,  —  mighty  beings  of  light,  wholly  submissive  to 
him.  First  he  created  “the  heroic  runner,  who  never 
dies,  the  sun,”  and  made  him  king  and  ruler  of  the  ma¬ 
terial  world.  From  Albordj  he  sets  out  on  his  course,  he 
circles  the  earth  in  the  highest  spheres  of  heaven,  and  at 
evening  returns.  Then  he  created  the  moon,  which  “  has 
its  own  light,”  which,  departing  from  Albordj,  circles  the 
earth  in  a  lower  sphere,  and  returns  ;  then  the  five  smaller 
planets,  and  the  whole  host  of  fixed  stars,  in  the  lowest 
circle  of  the  heavens.  The  space  between  the  earth  and 
the  firm  vault  of  heaven  is  therefore  divided  into  three 
spheres,  that  of  the  sun,  of  the  moon,  and  of  the  stars. 

The  host  of  stars  —  common  soldiers  in  the  war  with 
Ahriman  —  was  divided  into  four  troops,  with  each  its 
appointed  leader.  Twelve  companies  were  arranged  in 
the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac.  All  these  were  grouped 
into  four  great  divisions,  in  the  east,  west,  north,  and 
south.  The  planet  Tistrya  (Jupiter)  presides  over  and 
watches  that  in  the  east,  and  is  named  Prince  of  the 
Stars  ;  Sitavisa  (Saturn)  presides  over  the  western  divi¬ 
sion  ;  Yanant  (or  Mercury)  over  that  of  the  south  ;  and 
Hapto-iringa  (Mars)  over  the  stars  of  the  north.  In  the 
middle  of  the  heavens  is  the  great  star  Mesch,  Meschgah 
(Venus).  He  leads  them  against  Ahriman. 

The  dog  Sirius  (Sura)  is  another  watchman  of  the  heav¬ 
ens  ;  but  he  is  fixed  to  one  place,  at  the  bridge  Chinevat, 
keeping  guard  over  the  abyss  out  of  which  Ahriman  comes. 

When  Ormazd  had  completed  these  preparations  in  the 
heavens,  the  first  of  the  four  ages  drew  to  an  end,  and 
Ahriman  saw,  from  the  gloomy  depths  of  his  kingdom, 
what  Ormazd  had  done.  In  opposition  to  this  light  cre¬ 
ation,  he  created  a  world  of  darkness,  a  terrible  commu¬ 
nity,  equal  in  number  and  power  to  the  beings  of  light. 
Ormazd,  knowing  all  the  misery  that  Ahriman  would 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


197 


cause,  yet  knowing  that  the  victory  would  remain  with 
himself,  offered  to  Ahriman  peace ;  hut  Ahriman  chose 
war.  But,  blinded  by  Ormazd’s  majesty,  and  terrified  by 
the  sight  of  the  pure  Fravashis  of  holy  men,  he  was  con¬ 
quered  by  Ormazd’s  strong  word,  and  sank  back  into  the 
abyss  of  darkness,  where  he  lay  fettered  during  the  three 
thousand  years  of  the  second  period. 

Ormazd  now  completed  his  creation  upon  the  earth. 
Sapandomad  was  guardian  spirit  of  the  earth,  and  the 
earth,  as  Hethra,  was  mother  of  all  living.  Khordad  was 
chief  of  the  seasons,  years,  months,  and  days,  and  also 
protector  of  the  water  which  flowed  from  the  fountain 
Anduisur,  from  Albordj.  The  planet  Tistrya  was  com¬ 
missioned  to  raise  the  water  in  vapor,  collect  it  in  clouds, 
and  let  it  fall  in  rain,  with  the  aid  of  the  planet  Sitavisa. 
These  cloud-compellers  were  highly  reverenced.  Amer- 
dad  was  general  deity  of  vegetation  ;  but  the  great  Mithra 
was  the  god  of  fructification  and  reproduction  in  the 
whole  organic  world ;  his  work  was  to  lead  the  Fravashis 
to  the  bodies  they  were  to  occupy. 

Everything  earthly  in  the  light-world  of  Ormazd  had 
its  protecting  deity.  These  guardian  spirits  were  divided 
into  series  and  groups,  had  their  captains  and  their  asso¬ 
ciated  assistants.  The  seven  Amshaspands  (in  Zend, 
Amesha-qpentas)  were  the  chief  among  these,  of  whom 
Ormazd  was  first.  The  other  six  were  Bahman,  King 
of  Heaven  ;  Ardibehescht,  King  of  Fire  ;  Schariver,  King 
of  the  Metals  ;  Sapandomad,  Queen  of  the  Earth  ;  Amer- 
dad,  King  of  Vegetables  ;  and  Khordad,  King  of  Water. 

So  ended  the  second  age.  In  it  Ormazd  had  also  pro¬ 
duced  the  great  primitive  Bull,  in  which,  as  the  represent¬ 
ative  of  the  animal  world,  the  seeds  of  all  living  creatures 
were  deposited. 

While  Ormazd  was  thus  completing  his  light-creation, 
Ahriman,  in  his  dark  abyss,  was  effecting  a  correspond¬ 
ing  creation  of  darkness,  —  making  a  corresponding  evil 
being  for  every  good  being  created  by  Ormazd.  These 
spirits  of  night  stood  in  their  ranks  and  orders,  with  their 
seven  presiding  evil  spirits,  or  Daevas,,  corresponding  to 
the  Amshaspands. 


198 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  vast  preparations  for  this  great  war  being  com¬ 
pleted,  and  the  end  of  the  second  age  now  coming,  Ahri- 
man  was  urged  by  one  of  his  Daevas  to  begin  the  conflict. 
He  counted  his  host  ;  but  as  he  found  nothing  therein  to 
oppose  to  the  Fravashis  of  good  men,  he  sank  back  in  de¬ 
jection.  Finally  the  second  age  expired,  and  Ahriman  now 
sprang  aloft  without  fear,  for  he  knew  that  his  time  was 
come.  His  host  followed  him,  but  he  alone  succeeded  in 
reaching  the  heavens ;  his  troops  remained  behind.  A 
shudder  ran  over  him,  and  he  sprang  from  heaven  upon 
the  earth  in  the  form  of  a  serpent,  penetrated  to  its  centre, 
and  entered  into  everything  which  he  found  upon  it.  He 
passed  into  the  primal  Bull,  and  even  into  fire,  the  visible 
symbol  of  Ormazd,  defiling  it  with  smoke  and  vapor.  Then 
he  assailed  the  heavens,  and  a  part  of  the  stars  wfcre  al¬ 
ready  in  his  power,  and  veiled  in  smoke  and  mist,  when 
lie  was  attacked  by  Ormazd,  aided  by  the  Fravashis  of 
holy  men  ;  and  after  ninety  days  and  ninety  nights  he 
was  completely  defeated,  and  driven  back  with  his  troops 
into  the  abyss  of  Duzalik. 

But  he  did  not  remain  there,  for  through  the  middle  of 
the  earth  he  built  a  way  for  himself  and  his  companions, 
and  is  now  living  on  the  earth  together  with  Ormazd,  — 
according  to  the  decree  of  the  Infinite. 

The  destruction  which  he  produced  in  the  world  was 
terrible.  Nevertheless,  the  more  evil  he  tried  to  do,  the 
more  he  ignorantly  fulfilled  the  counsels  of  the  Infinite, 
and  hastened  the  development  of  good.  Thus  he  entered 
the  Bull,  the  original  animal,  and  injured  him  so  that  he 
died.  But  when  he  died,  Kaiomarts,  the  first  man,  came 
out  of  his  right  shoulder,  and  from  his  left  Goshurun,  the 
soul  of  the  Bull,  who  now  became  the  guardian  spirit  of 
the  animal  race.  Also  the  whole  realm  of  clean  animals 
and  plants  came  from  the  Bull’s  body.  Full  of  rage, 
Ahriman  now  created  the  unclean  animals,  —  for  every 
clean  beast  an  unclean.  Thus  Ormazd  created  the  dog, 
Ahriman  the  wolf ;  Ormazd  all  useful  animals,  Ahriman 
all  noxious  ones  ;  and  so  of  plants. 

But  to  Kaiomarts,  the  original  man,  Ahriman  had 
nothing  to  oppose,  and  so  he  determined  to  kill  him. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AYESTA. 


199 


Kaiomarts  was  both  man  and  woman,  but  through  his 
death  there  came  from  him  the  first  human  pair ;  a  tree 
grew  from  his  body,  and  bore  ten  pair  of  men  and  women. 
Meschia  and  Meschiane  were  the  first.  They  were  origi¬ 
nally  innocent  and  made  for  heaven,  and  worshipped 
Ormazd  as  their  creator.  But  Ahriman  tempted  them. 
They  drank  milk  from  a  goat  and  so  injured  themselves. 
Then  Ahriman  brought  them  fruit,  they  ate  it,  and  lost  a 
hundred  parts  of  their  happiness,  so  that  only  one  re¬ 
mained.  The  woman  was  the  first  to  sacrifice  to  the 
Daevas.  After  fifty  years  they  had  two  children,  Siamak 
and  Veschak,  and  died  a  hundred  years  old.  For  their 
sins  they  remain  in  hell  until  the  resurrection. 

The  human  race,  which  had  thus  become  mortal  and 
miserable  by  the  sin  of  its  first  parents,  assumed  never¬ 
theless  a  highly  interesting  position.  The  man  stands  in 
the  middle  between  the  two  worlds  of  light  and  darkness, 
left  to  his  own  free  will.  As  a  creature  of  Ormazd  he 
can  and  ought  to  honor  him,  and  assist  him  in  the  war 
with  evil ;  but  Ahriman  and  his  Daevas  surround  him  night 
and  day,  and  seek  to  mislead  him,  in  order  to  increase 
thereby  the  power  of  darkness.  He  would  not  be  able  at 
all  to  resist  these  temptations,  to  which  his  first  parents 
had  already  yielded,  had  not  Ormazd  taken  pity  on  him, 
and  sent  him  a  revelation  of  his  will  in  the  law  of  Zo¬ 
roaster.  If  he  obeys  these  precepts  he  is  safe  from  the 
Daevas,  under  the  immediate  protection  of  Ormazd.  The 
substance  of  the  law  is  the  command,  “  Think  purely, 
speak  PURELY,  ACT  purely.”  All  that  comes  from  Ormazd 
is  pure,  from  Ahriman  impure ;  and  bodily  purity  has  a 
like  worth  with  moral  purity.  Hence  the  multitude  and 
minuteness  of  precepts  concerning  bodily  cleanliness.  In 
fact  the  whole  liturgic  worship  turns  greatly  on  this 
point. 

The  Fravashis  of  men  originally  created  by  Ormazd 
are  preserved  in  heaven,  in  Ormazd’s  realm  of  light.  But 
they  must  come  from  heaven,  to  be  united  with  a  human 
body,  and  to  go  on  a  path  of  probation  in  this  world, 
called  the  “Way  of  the  Two  Destinies.”  Those  who  have 
chosen  the  good  in  this  world  are  received  after  death  by 


200 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


good  spirits,  and  guided,  under  the  protection  of  the  dog 
Sura,  to  the  bridge  Chinevat ;  the  wicked  are  dragged 
thither  by  the  Daevas.  Here  Ormazd  holds  a  tribunal 
and  decides  the  fate  of  the  souls.  The  good  pass  the 
bridge  into  the  mansions  of  the  blessed,  where  they  are 
welcomed  with  rejoicing  by  the  Amshaspands ;  the  bad  fall 
over  into  the  Gulf  of  Duzalik,  where  they  are  tormented 
by  the  Daevas.  The  duration  of  the  punishment  is  fixed 
by  Ormazd,  and  some  are  redeemed  earlier  by  means  of 
the  prayers  and  intercessions  of  their  friends,  but  many 
must  remain  till  the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 

Ahriman  himself  effects  this  consummation,  after 
having  exercised  great  power  over  men  during  the  last 
three  thousand  years.  He  created  seven  comets  (in  op¬ 
position  to  the  seven  planets),  and  they  went  on  ‘their 
destructive  paths  through  the  heavens,  filling  all  things 
with  danger,  and  all  men  with  terror.  But  Ormazd 
placed  them  under  the  control  of  his  planets  to  restrain 
them.  They  will  do  so,  till  by  the  decree  of  the  Infinite, 
at  the  close  of  the  last  period,  one  of  the  comets  will 
break  from  his  watchman,  the  moon,  and  plunge  upon 
the  earth,  producing  a  general  conflagration.  But  before 
this  Ormazd  will  send  his  Prophet  SosioQh  and  bring 
about  the  conversion  of  mankind,  to  be  followed  by  the 
general  resurrection. 

Ormazd  will  clothe  anew  with  flesh  the  bones  of  men, 
and  relatives  and  friends  will  recognize  each  other  again. 
Then  comes  the  great  division  of  the  just  from  the  sin¬ 
ners. 

When  Ahriman  shall  cause  the  comet  to  fall  on  the 
earth  to  gratify  his  destructive  propensities,  he  will  be 
really  serving  the  Infinite  Being  against  his  own  will. 
Por  the  conflagration  caused  by  this  comet  will  change 
the  whole  earth  into  a  stream  like  melted  iron,  which  will 
pour  impetuously  down  into  the  realm  of  Ahriman.  All 
beings  must  now  pass  through  this  stream :  to  the  right¬ 
eous  it  will  feel  like  warm  milk,  and  they  will  pass 
through  to  the  dwellings  of  the  just ;  but  all  the  sinners 
shall  be  borne  along  by  the  stream  into  the  abyss  of  Du- 
zahk.  Here  they  will  bum  three  days  and  nights  then. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA,- 


201 


being  purified,  they  will  invoke  Ormazd,  and  be  received 
into  heaven. 

Afterward  Ahriman  himself  and  all  in  the  Duzahk  shall 
be  purified  by  this  fire,  all  evil  be  consumed,  and  all  dark¬ 
ness  banished. 

From  the  extinct  fire  there  will  come  a  more  beautiful 
earth,  pure  and  perfect,  and  destined  to  be  eternal. 

Having  given  this  account  of  the  Pars!  system,  in  its 
later  development,  let  us  say  that  it  was  not  an  invention 
of  Zoroaster,  nor  of  any  one  else.  Eeligions  are  not  in¬ 
vented  :  they  grow.  Even  the  religion  of  Mohammed 
grew  out  of  pre-existent  beliefs.  The  founder  of  a  reli¬ 
gion  does  not  invent  it,  but  gives  it  form.  It  crystallizes 
around  his  own  deeper  thought.  So,  in  the  time  of  Zoro¬ 
aster,  the  popular  imagination  had  filled  nature  with 
powers  and  presences,  and  given  them  names,  and  placed 
them  in  the  heavens.  For,  as  Schiller  says  :  — • 

“’T  is  not  merely 

The  human  being’s  pride  which  peoples  space 
With  life  and  mystical  predominance  ; 

For  also  for  the  stricken  heart  of  Love, 

This  visible  nature  and  this  lower  world 
Are  all  too  common.” 

Zoroaster  organized  into  clearer  thought  the  pre-ex¬ 
isting  myths,  and  inspired  them  with  moral  ideas  and 
vital  power. 

§  8.  Relation  of  the  Religion  of  the  Zend  Avesta  to  that  of 

the  Vedas. 

That  the  Vedic  religion  and  that  of  the  Avesta  arose 
out  of  an  earlier  Aryan  religion,  monotheistic  in  its  cen¬ 
tral  element,  but  with  a  tendency  to  immerse  the  Deity 
in  nature,  seems  evident  from  the  investigations  of  Pictet 
and  other  scholars.  This  primitive  religion  of  the  Aryan 
race  diverged  early  in  two  directions,  represented  by  the 
Yeda  and  the  Avesta.  Yet  each  retains  much  in  common 
with  the  other.  The  names  of  the  powers,  Indra,  Sura, 
Naoghaithya,  are  in  both  systems.  In  the  Yeda  they 

are  gods,  in  the  Avesta  evil  spirits.  Indra,  worshipped 

9* 


202 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


throughout  the  Big-Veda  as  one  of  the  highest  deities, 
appears  in  the  Avesta  as  an  evil  being.*  Sura  (Qura), 
one  of  the  most  ancient  names  of  Shiva,  is  also  denounced 
and  opposed  in  the  Avesta  f  as  a  Daeva,  or  Dew.  And 
the  third  (Naoghaithya,  Naouhaiti),  also  an  evil  spirit  in 
the  Avesta,  is  the  Nasatya  of  the  Veda,  j  one  of  the  Al¬ 
vinas  or  twins  who  precede  the  Dawn.  The  Dews  or 
Daevas  of  the  Avesta  are  demons,  in  the  Vedas  they  are 
gods.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Ahuras,  or  gods,  of  the 
Avesta  are  Asuras,  or  demons,  in  the  Vedic  belief.  The 
original  land  of  the  race  is  called  Aryavesta  in  the  Laws 
of  Manu  (II.  22),  and  Aryana-Vaejo  in  the  Avesta.  The 
God  of  the  Sun  is  named  Mithra,  or  Mitra,  in  both  reli¬ 
gions.  The  Yima  of  the  Pars!  system  is  a  happy  king ; 
the  Yama  of  the  Hindoos  is  a  stern  judge  in  the  realms 
of  death.  The  dog  is  hateful  in  the  Indian  system,  an 
object  of  reverence  in  that  of  Zoroaster.  Both  the  reli¬ 
gions  dread  defilement  through  the  touch  of  dead  bodies. 
In  both  systems  fire  is  regarded  as  divine.  But  the  most 
striking  analogy  perhaps  is  to  be  found  in  the  worship 
paid  by  both  to  the  intoxicating  fermented  juice  of  the 
plant  Asclepias  acida,  called  Soma  in  the  Sanskrit  and 
Haoma  in  the  Zend.  The  identity  of  the  Haoma  with 
the  Indian  Soma  has  long  been  proved.§  The  whole  of 
the  Sama-Veda  is  devoted  to  this  moon-plant  worship  ; 
an  important  part  of  the  Avesta  is  occupied  with  hymns 
to  Haoma.  This  great  reverence  paid  to  the  same  plant, 
on  account  of  its  intoxicating  qualities,  carries  us  back  to 
a  region  where  the  vine  was  unknown,  and  to  a  race  to 
whom  intoxication  was  so  new  an  experience  as  to  seem 
a  gift  of  the  gods.  Wisdom  appeared  to  come  from  it, 
health,  increased  power  of  body  and  soul,  long  life,  victory 
in  battle,  brilliant  children.  What  Bacchus  was  to  the 
Greeks,  this  divine  Haoma,  or  Soma,  was  to  the  primitive 
Aryans,  j] 

*  See  Burnouf,  Comment,  sur  le  Ya<jna,  p.  528.  Flotard,  La  Religion 
primitive  cles  Indo-Europeens.  1864. 

+  Vendidad,  Fargard  X.  17. 

X  See  Spiegel’s  note  to  the  tenth  Fargard  of  the  Yendidad. 

§  See  Windischmann,  “  Ueber  den  Soma-Cultus  der  Arien.” 

H  Perhaps  one  of  the  most  widely  diffused  appellations  is  that  of  the 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


203 


It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  two  religions  setting 
out  from  the  same  point,  and  having  a  common  stock  of 
primitive  traditions,  at  last  said  each  to  the  other,  “  Your 
gods  are  my  demons.”  The  opposition  was  mutual.  The 
dualism  of  the  Persian  was  odious  to  the  Hindoo,  while 
the  absence  of  a  deep  moral  element  in  the  Yedic  system 
shocked  the  solemn  puritanism  of  Zoroaster.  The  reli¬ 
gion  of  the  Hindoo  was  to  dream,  that  of  the  Persian  to 
fight.  There  could  be  no  more  fellowship  between  them 
than  there  is  between  a  Quaker  and  a  Calvinist. 

§  9.  Is  Monotheism  or  pure  Dualism  the  Doctrine  of  the 

Zend  Avesta  ? 

We  find  in  the  Avesta,  and  in  the  oldest  portion  of  it, 
the  tendencies  which  resulted  afterward  in  the  elaborate 
theories  of  the  Bundehesch.  AYe  find  the  Zearna-Akerana, 
in  the  Yendidad  (XIX.  33, 44,  55),  —  “  The  Infinite  Time,” 
or  “  All-embracing  Time,”  —  as  the  creator  of  Ahriman, 
according  to  some  translations.  Spiegel,  indeed,  considers 
this  supreme  being,  above  both  Ormazd  and  Ahriman,  as 
not  belonging  to  the  original  Persian  religion,  but  as  bor¬ 
rowed  from  Semitic  sources.  But  if  so,  then  Ormazd  is 
the  supreme  and  uncreated  being,  and  creator  of  all  things. 
AVhy,  then,  has  Ormazd  a  Fravaslii,  or  archetype  ?  And 
in  that  case,  he  must  either  himself  have  created  Ahriman, 
or  else  Ahriman  is  as  eternal  as  he  ;  wdiich  latter  suppo¬ 
sition  presents  us  with  an  absolute,  irreconcilable  dualism. 
The  better  opinion  seems,  therefore,  to  be,  that  behind  the 
two  opposing  powers  of  good  and  evil,  the  thesis  and  anti¬ 
thesis  of  moral  life,  remains  the  obscure  background  of 
original  being,  the  identity  of  both,  from  which  both  have 
proceeded,  and  into  whose  abyss  both  shall  return. 

This  great  consummation  is  also  intimated  by  the  fact 
that  in  the  same  Fargard  of  the  Yendidad  (XIX.  18)  the 
future  restorer  or  saviour  is  mentioned,  Sosiogh  (Qaoshy- 

divine  being.  We  can  trace  this  very  word  divine  back  to  the  ancient 
root  Div,  meaning  to  shine.  From  this  is  derived  the  Sanskrit  Devas, 
the  Zend  Daeva,  the  Latin  Deus,  the  German  Zio,  the  Greek  Zens,  and 
also  Jupiter  (from  Djaus-piter).  See  Spiegel,  Zend  Avesta,  Einleitung, 
Cap.  I. 


204 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


an 9),  who  is  expected  by  the  Parsis  to  come  at  the  end 
of  all  things,  and  accomplish  the  resurrection,  and  intro¬ 
duce  a  kingdom  of  untroubled  happiness.*  Whether  the 
resurrection  belongs  to  the  primitive  form  of  the  religion 
remains  as  doubtful,  but  also  as  probable,  as  when  Mr. 
Alger  discussed  the  whole  question  in  his  admirable 
monograph  on  the  Doctrine  of  the  Future  Life.  Our  re¬ 
maining  fragments  of  the  Zend  A  vesta  say  nothing  of  the 
periods  of  three  thousand  years’  duration.  Two  or  three 
passages  in  the  Avesta  refer  to  the  resurrection.-)*  But 
the  conflict  between  Ormazd  and  Ahriman,  the  present 
struggle  between  good  and  evil,  the  ideal  world  of  the 
Fravashis  and  good  spirits,  —  these  unquestionably  belong 
to  the  original  belief. 

§10.  Relation  of  this  System  to  Christianity.  The  King¬ 
dom  of  Heaven. 

Of  this  system  we  will  say,  in  conclusion,  that  in  some 
respects  it  comes  nearer  to  Christianity  than  any  other. 
Moreover,  though  so  long  dead,  like  the  great  nation  of 
which  it  was  the  inspiration  and  life,  —  though  swept 
away  by  Mohammedanism,  —  its  influence  remains,  and 
has  permeated  both  Judaism  and  Christianity.  Chris¬ 
tianity  has  probably  received  from  it,  through  J udaism, 
its  doctrine  of  angels  and  devils,  and  its  tendency  to  estab¬ 
lish  evil  in  the  world  as  the  permanent  and  equal  adversary 
of  good.  Such  a  picture  as  that  by  Betzsch  of  the  Devil 
playing  chess  with  the  young  man  for  his  soul,  such  a  pic¬ 
ture  as  that  by  Guido  of  the  conflict  between  Michael  and 
Satan,  such  poems  as  Milton’s  Paradise  Lost  and  Goethe’s 
Faust,  could  perhaps  never  have  appeared  in  Christendom, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  influence  of  the  system  of  Zoroaster 
on  Jewish,  and,  through  Jewish,  on  Christian  thought.  It 
was  after  the  return  from  Babylon  that  the  Devil  and 
demons,  in  conflict  with  man,  became  a  part  of  the  com¬ 
pany  of  spiritual  beings  in  the  J ewish  mythology.  Angels 
there  were  before,  as  messengers  of  God,  but  devils  there 

,  *  Spiegel,  Vend.  Farg.  XIX.  note. 

if  Vendidad,  Farg.  XVIII.  110.  Farvardin-Yasht,  XVI. 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


205 


were  not ;  for  till  then  an  absolute  Providence  ruled  the 
world,  excluding  all  interference  of  antagonistic  powers. 
Satan,  in  Job,  is  an  angel  of  God,  not  a  devil;  doing 
a  low  kind  of  work,  indeed,  a  sort  of  critical  business, 
fault-finding,  and  looking  for  flaws  in  the  saints,  but  still 
an  angel,  and  no  devil.  But  after  the  captivity  the  hori¬ 
zon  of  the  Jewish  mind  enlarged,  and  it  took  in  the  con¬ 
ception  of  God  as  allowing  freedom  to  man  and  angels, 
and  so  permitting  bad  as  well  as  good  to  have  its  way. 
And  then  came  in  also  the  conception  of  a  future  life, 
and  a  resurrection  for  ultimate  judgment.  These  doc¬ 
trines  have  been  supposed,  with  good  reason,  to  have  come 
to  the  Jews  from  the  influence  of  the  great  system  of 
Zoroaster. 

There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  the  Jewish  prophets 
had  already  prepared  a  point  of  contact  and  attachment 
for  this  system,  and  developed  affinities  therewith,  by 
their  great  battle-cry  to  the  nation  for  right  against  wrong, 
and  their  undying  conviction  of  an  ultimate  restoration 
of  all  good  things.  But  the  Jews  found  also  in  the  Per¬ 
sian  faith  the  one  among  all  religions  most  like  their 
own,  in  this,  that  it  had  no  idols,  and  no  worship  but  that 
addressed  to  the  Unseen.  Sun  and  fire  were  his  symbols, 
but  he  himself  was  hidden  behind  the  glorious  veil  of 
being.  And  it  seems  as  if  the  Jews  needed  this  support 
of  finding  another  nation  also  hating  idolatry,  before  they 
could  really  rise  above  their  tendency  to  backslide  into  it. 
“  In  the  mouth  of  two  witnesses,”  the  spiritual  worship 
of  God  was  established  ;  and  not  till  Zoroaster  took  the 
hand  of  Moses  did  the  Jews  cease  to  be  idolaters.  After 
the  return  from  the  captivity  that  tendency  wholly  dis¬ 
appears. 

But  a  deeper  and  more  essential  point  of  agreement  is 
to  be  found  in  the  special  practical  character  of  the  two 
systems,  regarding  life  as  a  battle  between  right  and 
wrong,  waged  by  a  communion  of  good  men  fighting 
against  bad  men  and  bad  principles. 

Perhaps,  in  reading  the  New  Testament,  we  do  not 
always  see  how  much  Christianity  turns  around  the 


206 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


phrase,  and  the  idea  behind  it,  of  a  “  kingdom  of  Heaven.” 
The  Beatitudes  begin  “  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for 
theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.”  Both  John  the  Bap¬ 
tist  and  Christ  announce  that  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at 
hand.  The  parables  revolve  round  the  same  idea  of  “  the 
kingdom.”  which  is  likened  first  to  this,  and  then  to  that ; 
and  so,  passing  on  into  the  Epistles,  we  have  the  “  king¬ 
dom  of  Heaven  ”  still  as  the  leading  conception  of  Chris¬ 
tianity.  “  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  nor  drink  ”  ; 
—  such  are  common  expressions. 

The  peculiar  conception  of  the  Messiah  also  is  of  the 
King,  the  Anointed  one,  the  Head  of  this  divine  Mon¬ 
archy.  When  we  call  Jesus  the  Christ,  we  repeat  this 
ancient  notion  of  the  kingdom  of  God  among  men.  He 
himself  accepted  it ;  he  called  himself  the  Christ.  “  Thou 
sayest,”  said  he,  to  Pilate,  “  that  I  am  a  king.  To  this 
end  was  I  born,  and  for  this  cause  eame  I  into  the  world, 
that  I  should  bear  witness  unto  the  truth.” 

All  through  antiquity  there  ran  the  longing  for  a  com¬ 
munion  or  association  of  the  wise  and  good,  in  order 
to  establish  truth  and  justice  in  the  world.  The  tendency 
of  error  is  to  divide  ;  the  tendency  of  selfishness  is  to  sep¬ 
aration.  Only  goodness  and  truth  are  capable  of  real  com¬ 
munion,  interpenetration,  and  so  of  organic  life  and  growth. 
This  is  their  strength,  power,  and  hope.  Hence  all  the 
efforts  at  associated  action  in  antiquity,  such  as  the  Col¬ 
lege  of  Pythagoras,  the  ideal  Republic  of  Plato,  the  Spartan 
Commonwealth,  the  communities  of  the  Essenes,  the  niO' 
nastic  institutions  of  Asia  and  Europe ;  and  hence,  too,  the 
modern  attempts,  in  Protestantism,  by  Fourier,  the  Mora¬ 
vians,  the  Shakers,  Saint-Simon,  Robert  Owen,  and  others. 

But  among  the  J ews  this  desire  appeared,  first  in  their 
national  organization,  as  a  theosophic  and  theocratic  com¬ 
munity,  and  afterward,  when  this  broke  down  and  the 
nation  was  divided,  in  a  larger  prophetic  hope  of  the  Mes¬ 
sianic  times.  There  is  a  tendency  in  the  human  mind, 
when  it  sees  a  great  work  to  be  done,  to  look  for  a  leader. 
So  the  Jewish  hope  looked  for  a  leader.  Their  true  King 
was  to  come,  and  under  him  peace  and  righteousness  were 
to  reign,  and  the  kingdom  of  heaven  begin  on  earth.  It 


ZOROASTER  AND  THE  ZEND  AVESTA. 


207 


was  to  be  on  earth.  It  was  to  be  here  and  now.  And  so 
they  waited  and  longed. 

Meantime,  in  the  Persian  religion,  the  seed  of  the  same 
hope  was  sown.  There  also  the  work  of  life  was,  to  nnite 
together  a  community  of  good  men  and  good  angels, 
against  bad  men  and  devils,  and  so  make  a  kingdom  of 
heaven.  Long  and  sore  should  the  conflict  be ;  but  the 
victory  at  last  would  be  sure.  And  they  also  looked  for  a 
Sosioch,  or  Mediator,  who  was  to  be  what  the  Messiah  was 
to  be  to  the  Jews.  And  here  was  the  deep  and  real  point 
of  union  between  the  two  religions ;  and  this  makes  the 
profound  meaning  of  the  story  of  the  Star  which  was  seen 
in  the  East  and  which  guided  the  Magi  of  Zoroaster  to  the 
cradle  of  Christ. 

Jesus  came  to  be  the  Messiah.  He  fulfilled  that  great 
hope  as  he  did  others.  It  was  not  fulfilled,  in  the  sense  of 
the  letter  of  a  prophecy  being  acted  out,  but  in  the  sense 
of  the  prophecy  being  carried  up  and  on  to  its  highest 
point,  and  so  being  filled  full  of  truth  and  value.  The  first 
and  chief  purpose  of  Christianity  was,  not  to  save  the  souls 
of  men  hereafter,  as  the  Church  has  often  taught,  but  to 
found  a  kingdom  of  heaven  here,  on  earth  and  in  time. 
It  was  not  to  say,  “  Lo  here  !  ”  or  “  Lo  there  !  ”  but  to  say, 
“  Now  is  the  accepted  time  ” ;  “  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
among  you.”  In  thus  continuing  and  developing  to  its 
highest  point  the  central  idea  of  his  national  religion, 
Jesus  made  himself  the  true  Christ  and  fulfilled  all  the 
prophecies.  Perhaps  what  we  need  now  is  to  come  back 
to  that  notion  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  here  below,  and 
of  Jesus  the  present  king,  —  present,  because  still  bearing 
witness  to  the  truth.  Christians  must  give  up  thinking 
about  Christianity  as  only  a  means  of  escaping  a  future 
hell  and  arriving  at  a  future  heaven.  They  must  show 
now,  more  than  ever,  that,  by  a  union  of  loving  and  truth¬ 
ful  hearts,  God  comes  here,  immortality  begins  here,  and 
heaven  lies  about  us.  To  fight  the  good,  fight  of  justice 
and  truth,  as  the  disciples  of  Zoroaster  tried  to  fight  it,  — 
this  is  still  the  true  work  of  man ;  and  to  make  a  union  of 
those  who  wish  thus  to  fight  for  good  against  evil,  —  this 
is  still  the  true  church  of  Christ. 


208 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  old  religion  of  Zoroaster  died,  "but  as  the  corn  of 
wheat,  which,  if  it  die,  brings  forth  much  fruit. 

A  small  body  of  Parsis  remain  to-day  in  Persia,  and 
another  in  India,  —  disciples  of  this  venerable  faith. 
They  are  a  good,  moral,  industrious  people.  Some  of  them 
are  very  wealthy  and  very  generous.  Until  Mr.  George 
Peabody’s  large  donations,  no  one  had  bestowed  so  much 
on  public  objects  as  Sir  Jamsetjee  Jeejeeboy,  who  had 
given  to  hospitals,  schools,  and  charities,  some  years  since, 
a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars.  During  our  Pebellion, 
some  of  the  Parsis  sent  gifts  to  the  Sanitary  Commission, 
out  of  sympathy  with  the  cause  of  freedom  and  Union. 

Who  can  estimate  the  power  of  a  single  life  ?  Of  Zoro¬ 
aster  we  do  not  know  the  true  name,  nor  when  he  lived, 
nor  where  he  lived,  nor  exactly  what  he  taught.  But  the 
current  from  that  fountain  has  flowed  on  for  thousands  of 
years,  fertilizing  the  souls  of  men  out  of  its  hidden  sources, 
and  helping  on,  by  the  decree  of  Divine  Providence,  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  good  over  evil,  right  over  wrong. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


209 


CHAPTER,  VI. 

THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 

§  1.  Antiquity  and  Extent  of  Egyptian  Civilization.  §  2.  Religious  Char¬ 
acter  of  the  Egyptians.  Their  Ritual.  §  3.  Theology  of  Egypt. 
Sources  of  our  Knowledge  concerning  it.  §  4.  Central  Idea  of  Egyp¬ 
tian  Theology  and  Religion.  Animal  Worship.  §  5.  Sources  of 
Egyptian  Theology.  Age  of  the  Empire  and  Affinities  of  the  Race. 
§  6.  The  Three  Orders  of  Gods.  §  7.  Influence  of  Egypt  upon  Juda¬ 
ism  and  Christianity. 

§  1.  Antiquity  ancl  Extent  of  Egyptian  Civilization. 

THE  ancient  Egyptians  have  been  the  object  of  interest 

_ _  to  the  civilized  world  in  all  ages ;  for  Egypt  was  the 

favorite  home  of  civilization,  science,  and  religion.  It  was 
a  little  country,  the  gift  of  the  river  Nile  ;  a  little  strip  of 
land  not  more  than  seven  miles  wide,  but  containing  innu¬ 
merable  cities  and  towns,  and  in  ancient  times  supporting 
seven  millions  of  inhabitants.  Renowned  for  its  discov¬ 
eries  in  art  and  science,  it  was  the  world’s  university; 
where  Moses  and  Pythagoras,  Herodotus  and  Plato,  all 
philosophers  and  lawgivers,  went  to  school.  The  Egyptians 
knew  the  length  of  the  year  and  the  form  of  the  earth ; 
they  could  calculate  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon ;  were 
partially  acquainted  with  geometry,  music,  chemistry,  the 
arts  of  design,  medicine,  anatomy,  architecture,  agriculture, 
and  mining.  In  architecture,  in  the  qualities  of  grandeur 
and  massive  proportions,  they  are  yet  to  be  surpassed. 
The  largest  buildings  elsewhere  erected  by  man  are 
smaller  than  their  pyramids ;  which  are  also  the  oldest 
human  works  still  remaining,  the  beauty  of  whose 
masonry,  says  Wilkinson,  has  not  been  surpassed  in  any 
subsequent  age.  An  obelisk  of  a  single  stone  now  stand¬ 
ing  in  Egypt  weighs  three  hundred  tons,  and  a  colossus 
of  Ramses  II.  nearly  nine  hundred.  But  Herodotus  de¬ 
scribes  a  monolithic  temple,  which  must  have  weighed 


210 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


five  thousand  tons,  and  which  was  carried  the  whole  length 
of  the  Nile,  to  the  Delta.  And  there  is  a  roof  of  a  doorway 
at  Karnak,  covered  with  sandstone  blocks  forty  feet  long. 
Sculpture  and  bas-reliefs  three  thousand  five  hundred 
years  old,  where  the  granite  is  cut  with  exquisite  delicacy, 
are  still  to  he  seen  throughout  Egypt.  Many  inventions, 
hitherto  supposed  to  he  modern,  such  as  glass,  mosaics, 
false  gems,  glazed  tiles,  enamelling,  were  well  known  to  the 
Egyptians.  But,  for  us,  the  most  fortunate  circumstance 
in  their  taste  was  their  fondness  for  writing.  No  nation 
has  ever  equalled  them  in  their  love  for  recording  all  hu¬ 
man  events  and  transactions.  They  wrote  down  all  the 
details  of  private  life  with  wonderful  zeal,  method,  and 
regularity.  Every  year,  month,  and  day  had  its  record, 
and  thus  Egypt  is  the  monumental  land -of  the  earth. 
Bunsen  says  that  “the  genuine  Egyptian  writing  is  at 
least  as  old  as  Menes,  the  founder  of  the  Empire  ;  perhaps 
three  thousand  years  before  Christ.”  No  other  human 
records,  whether  of  India  or  China,  go  hack  so  far.  Lep- 
sius  saw  the  hieroglyph  of  the  reed  and  inkstand  on  the 
monuments  of  the  fourth  dynasty,  and  the  sign  of  the 
papyrus  roll  on  that  of  the  twelfth  dynasty,  which  was  the 
last  but  one  of  the  old  Empire.  “No  Egyptian,”  says 
Herodotus,  “  omits  taking  accurate  note  of  extraordinary 
and  striking  events.”  Everything  was  written  down. 
Scribes  are  seen  everywhere  on  the  monuments,  taking 
accounts  of  the  products  of  the  farms,  even  to  every  single 
egg  and  chicken.  “  In  spite  of  the  ravages  of  time,  and 
though  systematic  excavation  has  scarcely  yet  com¬ 
menced,”  says  Bunsen,  “  we  possess  chronological  records 
of  a  date  anterior  to  any  period  of  which  manuscripts  are 
preserved,  or  the  art  of  writing  existed  in  any  other 
quarter.”  Because  they  were  thus  fond  of  recording  every¬ 
thing,  both  in  pictures  and  in  three  different  kinds  of 
writing ;  because  they  were  also  fond  of  building  and  ex¬ 
cavating  temples  and  tombs  in  the  imperishable  granite ; 
because,  lastly,  the  dryness  of  the  air  has  preserved  for  us 
these  paintings,  and  the  sand  which  has  buried  the  mon¬ 
uments  has  prevented  their  destruction, — we  have  wonder¬ 
fully  preserved,  over  an  interval  of  forty-five  centuries. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


211 


the  daily  habits,  the  opinions,  and  the  religious  faith  of 
that  ancient  time. 

The  oldest  mural  paintings  disclose  a  state  of  the  arts 
of  civilization  so  advanced  as  to  surprise  even  those  who 
have  made  archaeology  a  study,  and  who  consequently 
know  how  few  new  things  there  are  under  the  sun.  It  is 
not  astonishing  to  find  houses  with  doors  and  windows, 
with  verandas,  with  bams  for  grain,  vineyards,  gardens, 
fruit-trees,  etc.  We  might  also  expect,  since  man  is  a 
fighting  animal,  to  see,  as  we  do,  pictures  of  marching 
troops,  armed  with  spears  and  shields,  bows,  slings,  dag¬ 
gers,  axes,  maces,  and  the  boomerang ;  or  to  notice  coats 
of  mail,  standards,  war-chariots ;  or  to  find  the  assault  of 
forts  by  means  .of  scaling-ladders.  But  these  ancient 
tombs  also  exhibit  to  us  scenes  of  domestic  life  and  man¬ 
ners  which  would  seem  to  belong  to  the  nineteenth  cen¬ 
tury  after  our  era,  rather  than  to  the  fifteenth  century 
before  it.  Thus  we  see  monkeys  trained  to  gather  fruit 
from  the  trees  in  an  orchard;  houses  furnished  with  a 
great  variety  of  chairs,  tables,  ottomans,  carpets,  couches, 
as  elegant  and  elaborate  as  any  used  now.  There  are 
comic  and  genre  pictures  of  parties,  where  the  gentlemen 
and  ladies  are  sometimes  represented  as  being  the  worse 
for  wine ;  of  dances  where  ballet-girls  in  short  dresses 
perform  very  modern-looking  pirouettes ;  of  exercises  in 
wrestling,  games  of  ball,  games  of  chance  like  chess  or 
checkers,  of  throwing  knives  at  a  mark,  of  the  modern 
thimblerig,  wooden  dolls  for  children,  curiously  carved 
wooden  boxes,  dice,  and  toy-balls.  There  are  men  and 
women  playing  on  harps,  flutes,  pipes,  cymbals,  trumpets, 
drums,  guitars,  and  tambourines.  Glass  was,  till  recently, 
believed  to  be  a  modern  invention,  unknown  to  the 
ancients.  But  we  find  it  commonly  used  as  early  as  the 
age  of  Osertasen  I.,  more  than  three  thousand  eight  hun¬ 
dred  years  ago ;  and  we  have  pictures  of  glass-blowing 
and  of  glass  bottles  as  far  back  as  the  fourth  dynasty.  The 
best  Venetian  glass-workers  are  unable  to  rival  some  of  the 
old  Egyptian  work ;  for  the  Egyptians  could  combine  all 
colors  in  one  cup,  introduce  gold  between  two  surfaces  of 
glass,  and  finish  in  glass  details  of  feathers,  etc.,  which  it 


212 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


now  requires  a  microscope  to  make  out.  It  is  evident, 
therefore,  that  they  understood  the  use  of  the  magnifying- 
glass.  The  Egyptians  also  imitated  successfully  the  colors 
of  precious  stones,  and  could  even  make  statues  thirteen 
feet  high,  closely  resembling  an  emerald.  They  also  made 
mosaics  in  glass,  of  wonderfully  brilliant  colors.  They 
could  cut  glass,  at  the  most  remote  periods.  Chinese  bot¬ 
tles  have  also  been  found  in  previously  unopened  tombs  of 
the  eighteenth  dynasty,  indicating  commercial  intercourse 
reaching  as  far  back  as  that  epoch.  They  were  able  to 
spin  and  weave,  and  color  cloth;  and  were  acquainted 
with  the  use  of  mordants,  the  wonder  in  modern  calico- 
printing.  Pliny  describes  this  process  as  used  in  Egypt, 
but  evidently  without  understanding  its  nature.  Writing- 
paper  made  of  the  papyrus  is  as  old  as  the  Pyramids. 
The  Egyptians  tanned  leather  and  made  shoes ;  and  the 
shoemakers  on  their  benches  are  represented  working 
exactly  like  ours.  Their  carpenters  used  axes,  saws,  chisels, 
drills,  planes,  rulers,  plummets,  squares,  hammers,  nails, 
and  hones  for  sharpening.  They  also  understood  the  use 
of  glue  in  cabinet-making,  and  there  are  paintings  of 
veneering,  in  which  a  piece  of  thin  dark  wood  is  fastened 
by  glue  to  a  coarser  piece  of  light  wood.  Their  boats  were 
propelled  by  sails  on  yards  and  masts,  as  well  as  by  oars. 
They  used  the  blow-pipe  in  the  manufacture  of  gold 
chains  and  other  ornaments.  They  had  rings  of  gold  and 
silver  for  money,  and  weighed  it  in  scales  of  a  careful 
construction.  Their  hieroglyphics  are  carved  on  the 
hardest  granite  with  a  delicacy  and  accuracy  which  indi¬ 
cates  the  use  of  some  metallic  cutting  instrument,  proba¬ 
bly  harder  than  our  best  steel.  The  siphon  was  known  in 
the  fifteenth  century  before  Christ.  The  most  singular 
part  of  their  costume  was  the  wig,  worn  by  all  the  higher 
classes,  who  constantly  shaved  their  heads,  as  well  as  their 
chins,  —  which  shaving  of  the  head  is  supposed  by  Herod¬ 
otus  to  be  the  reason  of  the  thickness  of  the  Egyptian 
skull.  They  frequently  wore  false  beards.  Sandals,  shoes, 
and  low  boots,  some  very  elegant,  are  found  in  the  tombs. 
Women  wore  loose  robes,  ear-rings,  finger-rings,  bracelets, 
armlets,  anklets,  gold  necklaces.  In  the  tombs  are  found 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


213 


vases  for  ointment,  mirrors,  combs,  needles.  Doctors  and 
drugs  were  not  unknown  to  them ;  and  the  passport 
system  is  no  modern  invention,  for  their  deeds  contain 
careful  descriptions  of  the  person,  exactly  in  the  style  with 
which  European  travellers  are  familiar.  We  have  only 
mentioned  a  small  part  of  the  customs  and  arts  with 
which  the  tombs  of  the  Egyptians  show  them  to  have 
been  familiar.  These  instances  are  mostly  taken  from 
Wilkinson,  whose  works  contain  numerous  engravings 
from  the  monuments  which  more  than  verify  all  we  have 
said. 

The  celebrated  Erench  Egyptologist,  M.  Marie tte,  has 
very  much  enlarged  our  knowledge  of  the  more  ancient 
dynasties,  by  his  explorations,  first  under  a  mission  from 
the  French  government,  and  afterward  from  that  of  Egypt. 
The  immense  temples  and  palaces  of  Thebes  are  all  of  a 
date  at  least  b.  c.  1000.  We  know  the  history  of  Egypt  very 
well  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  the  Hyksos,  or  to  the  eigh¬ 
teenth  dynasty.  M.  Mariette  has  discovered  statues  and 
Sphinxes  which  he  believes  to  have  been  the  work  of  the 
Hyksos,  the  features  being  wholly  different  from  that  of 
the  typical  Egyptian.  Four  of  these  Sphinxes,  found  by 
Mariette  on  the  site  of  the  old  Tanis,  have  the  regular 
body  of  a  lion,  according  to  the  canon  of  Egyptian  art,  but 
the  human  heads  are  wholly  un-Egyptian.  Mariette,  in 
describing  them,  says  that  in  the  true  Egyptian  Sphinx 
there  is  always  a  quiet  majesty,  the  eye  calm  and  wide 
open,  a  smile  on  the  lips,  a  round  face,  and  a  peculiar 
coiffure  with  wide  open  wings.  Nothing  of  this  is  to  be 
found  in  these  Sphinxes.  Their  eyes  are  small,  the  nose 
aquiline,  the  cheeks  hard,  the  mouth  drawn  down  with  a 
grave  expression. 

These  Shepherd  Kings,  the  Hyksos,  ruled  Lower  Egypt, 
according  to  Manetho,  five  hundred  and  eleven  years, 
which,  according  to  Renan,*  brings  the  preceding  dynasty 
(the  fourteenth  of  Manetho)  as  early  as  b.  c.  2000.  Monu¬ 
ments  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  dynasties  are  common. 
The  oldest  obelisk  dates  B.  c.  2800.  Thanks  to  the  exca¬ 
vations  of  M.  Mariette,  we  now  have  a  large  quantity 

*  Article  in  Kevue  des  Deux  Mondes,  April,  1865. 


214 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


of  sculptures  and  statues  of  a  still  earlier  epoch.  M. 
Benan  describes  *  tombs  visited  by  himself,  which  he  con¬ 
siders  to  be  the  oldest  known,  and  which  he  regards  as 
being  B.  c.  4000,  •f  where  were  represented  all  the  details 
of  domestic  life.  The  tone  of  these  pictures  was  glad  and 
gay ;  and,  what  is  remarkable,  they  had  no  trace  of  the 
funeral  ritual  or  the  god  Osiris.  These  were  not  like 
tombs,  but  rather  like  homes.  To  secure  the  body  from  all 
profanation,  it  was  concealed  in  a  pit,  carefully  hidden 
in  the  solid  masonry.  These  tombs  belong  to  the  six 
first  dynasties. 

The  great  antiquity  of  Egyptian  civilization  is  univer¬ 
sally  admitted ;  but  to  fix  its  chronology  and  precise  age 
becomes  very  difficult,  from  the  fact  that  the  Egyptians 
had  no  era  from  which  to  date  forward  or  backward. 
This  question  we  shall  return  to  in  a  subsequent  section 
of  this  chapter. 

i 

§  2.  Religious  Character  of  the  Egyptians.  Their  Ritual. 

But,  wonderful  as  was  the  civilization  of  Egypt,  it  is 
not  this  which  now  chiefly  interests  us.  They  were 
prominent  among  all  ancient  nations  for  their  interest  in 
religion,  especially  of  the  ceremonial  part  of  religion,  or 
worship.  Herodotus  says  :  They  are  of  all  men  the 
most  excessively  attentive  to  the  worship  of  the  gods.” 
And  beside  his  statement  to  that  effect,  there  is  evidence 
that  the  origin  of  much  of  the  theology,  mythology,  and 
ceremonies  of  the  Hebrews  and  Greeks  was  in  Egypt. 
“  The  names  of  almost  all  the  gods,”  says  Herodotus,  “  came 
from  Egypt  into  Greece  ”  (Euterpe,  50).  The  Greek  ora¬ 
cles,  especially  that  of  Dodona,  he  also  states  to  have 
been  brought  from  Egypt  (II.  54  -  57),  and  adds,  more¬ 
over,  that  the  Egyptians  were  the  first  who  introduced 
public  festivals,  processions,  and  solemn  supplications, 
which  the  Greeks  learned  from  them.  “  The  Egyptians, 
then,”  says  he,  “  are  beyond  measure  scrupulous  in  matters 

*  Article  in  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  April,  1865. 

t  Other  Egyptologists  would  not  agree  to  this  antiquity. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


215 


of  religion  (§  64).  They  invented  the  calendar,  and  con¬ 
nected  astrology  therewith.  “  Each  month  and  'day,”  says 
Herodotus  (II.  82),  “  is  assigned  to  some  particular  god, 
and  each  person’s  birthday  determines  his  fate.”  He  tes¬ 
tifies  (II.  123)  that  “  the  Egyptians  were  also  the  first  to 
say  that  the  soul  of  man  is  immortal,  and  that  when  the 
body  perishes  it  transmigrates  through  every  variety  of 
animal.”  It  seems  apparent,  also,  that  the  Greek  mys¬ 
teries  of  Eleusis  were  taken  from  those  of  Isis ;  the 
story  of  the  wanderings  of  Ceres  in  pursuit  of  Proserpine 
being  manifestly  borrowed  from  those  of  Isis  in  search  of 
the  body  of  Osiris.  With  this  testimony  of  Herodotus 
modern  writers  agree.  “  The  Egyptians,”  says  Wilkinson, 
“  were  unquestionably  the  most  pious  nation  of  all  an¬ 
tiquity.  The  oldest  monuments  show  their  belief  in  a 
future  life.  And  Osiris,  the  Judge,  is  mentioned  in  tombs 
erected  two  thousand  years  before  Christ.”  Bunsen  tells 
us  that  “  it  has  at  last  been  ascertained  that  all  the  great 
gods  of  Egypt  are  on  the  oldest  monuments,”  and  says  :  “  It 
is  a  great  and  astounding  fact,  established  beyond  the 
possibility  of  doubt,  that  the  empire  of  Menes  on  its  first 
appearance  in  history  possessed  an  established  mythology, 
that  is,  a  series  of  gods.  Before  the  empire  of  Menes, 
the  separate  Egyptian  states  had  their  temple  worship 
regularly  organized.” 

Everything  among  the  Egyptians,  says  M.  Maury,* 
took  the  stamp  of  religion.  Their  writing  was  so  full  of 
sacred  symbols  that  it  could  scarcely  be  used  for  any 
purely  secular  purpose.  Literature  and  science  were  only 
branches  of  theology.  Art  labored  only  in  the  service  of 
worship  and  to  glorify  the  gods.  Beligious  observances 
were  so  numerous  and  so  imperative,  that  the  most  com¬ 
mon  labors  of  daily  life  could  not  be  performed  without 
a  perpetual  reference  to  some  priestly  regulation.  The 
Egyptian  only  lived  to  worship.  His  fate  in  the  future 
life  was  constantly  present  to  him.  The  sun,  when  it 
set,  seemed  to  him  to  die  ;  and  when  it  rose  the  next  morn¬ 
ing,  and  tricking  its  beams  flamed  once  more  in  the  fore¬ 
head  of  the  sky,  it  was  a  perpetual  symbol  of  a  future 

*  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  September  1,  18»7. 


216 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


resurrection.  Eeligion  penetrated  so  deeply  into  the 
habits  of  the  land,  that  it  almost  made  a  part  of  the  intel¬ 
lectual  and  physical  organization  of  its  inhabitants. 
Habits  continued  during  many  generations  at  last  become 
instincts,  and  are  transmitted  with  the  blood.*  So  reli¬ 
gion  in  Egypt  became  an  instinct.  Unaltered  by  the 
dominion  of  the  Persians,  the  Ptolemies,  and  Eomans,  it 
was,  of  all  polytheisms,  the  most  obstinate  in  its  resist¬ 
ance  to  Christianity,  and  retained  its  devotees  down  to  the 
sixth  century  of  our  era.*f* 

There  were  more  festivals  in  Egypt  than  among  any  oth¬ 
er  ancient  people,  the  Greeks  not  excepted.  Every  month 
and  day  was  governed  by  a  god.  There  were  two  feasts 
of  the  New-Year,  twelve  of  the  first  days  of  the  months, 
one  of  the  rising  of  the  dog-star  (Sirius,  called  Sothis), 
and  others  to  the  great  gods,  to  seed-time  and  harvest,  to 
the  rise  and  fall  of  the  Nile.  The  feast  of  lamps  at  Sais 
was  in  honor  of  Neith,  and  was  kept  throughout  Egypt.  { 
The  feast  of  the  death  of  Osiris ;  the  feast  of  his  resur¬ 
rection  (when  people  called  out,  “We  have  found  him  ! 
Good  luck !  ” ) ;  feasts  of  Isis  (one  of  which  lasted  four 
days) ;  the  great  feast  at  Bubastis,  greatest  of  all,  — 
these  were  festivals  belonging  to  all  Egypt.  On  one  of 
them  as  many  as  seven  hundred  thousand  persons  sailed 
on  the  Nile  with  music.  At  another,  the  image  of  the 
god  was  carried  to  the  temple  by  armed  men,  who  were 
resisted  by  armed  priests  in  a  battle  in  which  many  were 
often  killed. 

The  history  of  the  gods  was  embodied  in  the  daily  life 
of  the  people.  In  an  old  papyrus  described  by  De  Bouge,§ 
it  is  said  :  “  On  the  twelfth  of  Chorak  no  one  is  to  go  out 

*  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  p.  195. 

+  Yet  this  very  organic  religion,  “incorporate  in  blood  and  frame,” 
was  a  preparation  for  Christianity  ;  and  Dr.  Brugsch  (Aus  dem  Orient,  p. 
73)  remarks,  that  “exactly  in  Egypt  did  Christianity  find  most  martyrs  ; 
and  it  is  no  accident,  hut  a  part  of  the  Divine  plan,  that  in  the  very 
region  where  the  rock-cut  temples  and  tombs  are  covered  with  memorials 
of  the  ancient  gods  and  kings,  there,  by  their  side,  other  numerous  rock- 
cut  inscriptions  tell  of  a  yet  more  profound  faith  and  devotion  born  of 
Christianity.” 

X  It  is  yet  marked  in  the  almanacs  as  Candlemas  Day,  or  the  Purifica¬ 
tion  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 

§  De  Rouge,  Revue  Archeologicjue,  1853. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


217 


« 


/ 


of  doors,  for  on  that  day  the  transformation  of  Osiris  into 
the  bird  Wennu  took  place ;  on  the  fourteenth  of  Toby 
no  voluptuous  songs  must  be  listened  to,  for  Isis  and 
Nepthys  bewail  Osiris  on  that  day.  On  the  third  of 
Mechir  no  one  can  go  on  a  journey,  because  Set  then 
began  a  war.”  On  another  day  no  one  must  go  out. 
Another  was  lucky,  because  on  it  the  gods  conquered 
Set ;  and  a  child  born  on  that  day  was  supposed  to  live 
to  a  great  age. 

Every  temple  had  its  own  body  of  priests.  They  did 
not  constitute  an  exclusive  caste,  though  they  were  con¬ 
tinued  in  families.  Priests  might  be  military  commanders, 
governors  of  provinces,  judges,  and  architects.  Soldiers 
had  priests  for  sons,  and  the  daughters  of  priests  married 
soldiers.  Of  three  brothers,  one  was  a  priest,  another  a 
soldier,  and  a  third  held  a  civil  employment*  Joseph,  a 
stranger,  though  naturalized  in  the  country,  received  as  a 
wife  the  daughter  of  the  High-Priest  of  On,  or  Heliopolis. 

The  priests  in  Egypt  were  of  various  grades,  as  the 
chief  priests  or  pontiffs,  prophets,  judges,  scribes,  those 
who  examined  the  victims,  keepers  of  the  robes,  of  the 
sacred  animals,  etc. 

Women  also  held  offices  in  the  temple  and  performed 
duties  there,  though  not  as  priestesses. 

The  priests  were  exempt  from  taxes,  and  were  provided 
for  out  of  the  public  stores.  They  superintended  sacri¬ 
fices,  processions,  funerals,  and  were  initiated  into  the 
greater  and  lesser  mysteries  ;  they  were  also  instructed 
in  surveying.  They  were  particular  in  diet,  both  as  to 
quantity  and  quality.  Flesh  of  swine  was  particularly 
forbidden,  and  also  that  of  fish.  Beans  were  held  in  utter 
abhorrence,  also  peas,  onions,  and  garlic,  which,  however, 
were  offered  on  the  altar.  They  bathed  twice  a  day  and 
twice  in  the  night,  and  shaved  the  head  and  body  every 
three  days.  A  great  purification  took  place  before  their 
fasts,  which  lasted  from  seven  to  forty-two  days. 

They  offered  prayers  for  the  dead. 

The  dress  of  the  priests  was  simple,  chiefly  of  linen, 
consisting  of  an  under-garment  and  a  loose  upper  robe, 

*  Ampere,  Revue  Arch.  1849,  quoted  by  Dolliuger. 

10 


218 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


with  full  sleeves,  and  the  leopard-skin  above  ;  sometimes 
one  or  two  feathers  in  the  head. 

Chaplets  and  flowers  were  laid  upon  the  altars,  such  as 
the  lotus  and  papyrus,  also  grapes  and  figs  in  baskets,  and 
ointment  in  alabaster  vases.  Also  necklaces,  bracelets,  and 
jewelry,  were  offered  as  thanksgivings  and  invocations. 

Oxen  and  other  animals  were  sacrificed,  and  the  blood 
allowed  to  flow  over  the  altar.  Libations  of  wine  were 
poured  on  the  altar.  Incense  was  offered  to  all  the  gods 
in  censers. 

Processions  were  usual  with  the  Egyptians  ;  in  one, 
shrines  were  carried  on  the  shoulders  by  long  staves  passed 
through  rings.  In  others  the  statues  of  the  gods  were  car¬ 
ried,  and  arks  like  those  of  the  J ews,  overshadowed  by  the 
wings  of  the  goddess  of  truth  spread  above  the  sacred  beetle. 

The  prophets  were  the  most  highly  honored  of  the 
priestly  order.  They  studied  the  ten  liieratical  books. 
The  business  of  the  stolists  *  was  to  dress  and  undress  the 
images,  to  attend  to  the  vestments  of  the  priests,  and  to 
mark  the  beasts  selected  for  sacrifice.  The  scribes  were 
to  search  for  the  Apis,  or  sacred  bull,  and  were  required 
to  possess  great  learning. 

The  priests  had  no  sinecure ;  their  life  was  full  of 
minute  duties  and  restrictions.  They  seldom  appeared  in 
public,  were  married  to  one  wife,  were  circumcised  like 
other  Egyptians,  and  their  whole  time  was  occupied  either 
in  study  or  the  service  of  their  gods.  There  was  a  gloomy 
tone  to  the  religion  of  Egypt,  which  struck  the  Greeks, 
whose  worship  was  usually  cheerful.  Apuleius  says  “the 
gods  of  Egypt  rejoice  in  lamentations,  those  of  Greece  in 
dances.”  Another  Greek  writer  says,  “  The  Egyptians  offer 
their  gods  tears.” 

Until  Swedenborg*)*  arrived,  and  gave  his  disciples  the 

*  These  designations  are  the  Greek  form  of  the  official  titles, 
t  I  do  not  know  if  it  has  been  noticed  that  the  principle  of  Sweden¬ 
borg’s  heaven  was  anticipated  by  Milton  (Paradise  Lost,  V.  573),  — 

“  What  surmounts  the  reach 
Of  human  sense  I  shall  delineate  so 
By  likening  spiritual  to  corporeal  forms, 

As  may  express  them  best  ;  though  what  if  Earth 
Be  but  the  shadow  of  Heaven ,  and  things  therein, 

Each  to  the  other  like,  more  than  on  earth  is  thought .” 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


219 


precise  measure  and  form  of  the  life  to  come,  no  religion 
lias  ever  taught  an  immortality  as  distinct  in  its  outline 
and  as  solid  in  its  substance  as  that  of  the  Egyptians. 
The  Greek  and  Roman  hereafter  was  shadowy  and  vague ; 
that  of  Buddhism  remote  ;  and'  the  Hebrew  Beyond 
was  wholly  eclipsed  and  overborne  by  the  sense  of  a 
Divine  presence  and  power  immanent  in  space  and  time. 
To  the  Egyptian,  this  life  was  but  the  first  step,  and  a  very 
short  one,  of  an  immense  career.  The  sun  (Ra)  alternately 
setting  and  rising,  was  the  perpetually  present  type  of  the 
progress  of  the  soul,  and  the  Sothiac  period  (symbolized 
by  the  Phoenix)  of  1421  years  from  one  heliacal  rising  of 
Sirius  at  the  beginning  of  the  fixed  Egyptian  year  to  the 
next,  was  also  made  to  define  the  cycle  of  human  trans¬ 
migrations.  Two  Sothiac  periods  correspond  nearly  to 
the  three  thousand  years  spoken  of  by  Herodotus,  during 
which  the  soul  transmigrates  through  animal  forms  before 
returning  to  its  human  body.  Then,  to  use  the  Egyptian 
language,  the  soul  arrived  at  the  ship  of  the  sun  and  was 
received  by  Ra  into  his  solar  splendor.  On  some  sarco¬ 
phagi  the  soul  is  symbolized  by  a  hawk  with  a  human 
head,  carrying  in  his  claws  two  rings,  which  probably  sig¬ 
nify  the  two  Sothiac  cycles  of  its  transmigrations. 

The  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  says  Mr. 
Birch,' *  is  as  old  as  the  inscriptions  of  the  twelfth  dynasty, 
many  of  which  contain  extracts  from  the  Ritual  of  the 
Dead.  One  hundred  and  forty-six  chapters  of  this  Ritual 
have  been  translated  by  Mr.  Birch  from  the  text  of  the 
Turin  papyrus,  the  most  complete  in  Europe.  Chapters 
of  it  are  found  on  mummy-cases,  on  the  wraps  of  mum¬ 
mies,  on  the  walls  of  tombs,  and  within  the  coffins  on 
papyri.  This  Ritual  is  all  that  remains  of  the  Hermetic 
Books  which  constituted  the  library  of  the  priesthood. 
Two  antagonist  classes  of  deities  appear  in  this  liturgy  as 
contending  for  the  soul  of  the  deceased,  —  Osiris  and  his 
triad,  Set  and  his  devils.  The  Sun-God,  source  of  life,  is 
also  present. 

An  interesting  chapter  of  the  Ritual  is  the  one  hundred 
*  Bunsen,  Egypt’s  Place,  Yol.  Y.  p.  129,  note. 


220 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


and  twenty-fifth,  called  the  Hall  of  the  Two  Truths.  It 
is  the  process  of  “  separating  a  person  from  his  sins/’  not 
by  confession  and  repentance,  as  is  usual  in  other  reli¬ 
gions,  but  by  denying  them.  Forty-two  deities  are  said 
to  be  present  to  feed  on  the  blood  of  the  wicked.  The 
soul  addresses  the  Lords  of  Truth,  and  declares  that  it  has 
not  done  evil  privily,  and  proceeds  to  specifications.  He 
says  :  “  I  have  not  afflicted  any.  I  have  not  told  false¬ 
hoods.  I  have  not  made  the  laboring  man  do  more  than 
his  task.  I  have  not  been  idle.  I  have  not  murdered.  I 
have  not  committed  fraud.  I  have  not  injured  the  images 
of  the  gods.  I  have  not  taken  scraps  of  the  bandages  of 
the  dead.  I  have  not  committed  adultery.  I  have  not 
cheated  by  false  weights.  I  have  not  kept  milk  from 
sucklings.  I  have  not  caught  the  sacred  birds.”  Then, 
addressing  each  god  by  name,  he  declares  :  “  I  have  not 
been  idle.  I  have  not  boasted.  I  have  not  stolen.  I  have 
not  counterfeited,  nor  killed  sacred  beasts,  nor  blasphemed, 
nor  refused  to  hear  the  truth,  nor  despised  God  in  my 
heart.”  According  to  some  texts,  he  declares,  positively, 
that  he  has  loved  God,  that  he  has  given  bread  to  the 
hungry,  water  to  the  thirsty,  garments  to  the  naked,  and 
an  asylum  to  the  abandoned. 

Funeral  ceremonies  among  the  Egyptians  were  often 
very  imposing.  The  cost  of  embalming,  and  the  size  and 
strength  of  the  tomb,  varied  with  the  position  of  the  de¬ 
ceased.  When  the  seventy  days  of  mourning  had  elapsed, 
the  body  in  its  case  was  ferried  across  the  lake  in  front  of 
the  temple,  which  represented  the  passage  of  the  soul 
over  the  infernal  stream.  Then  came  a  dramatic  repre¬ 
sentation  of  the  trial  of  the  soul  before  Osiris.  The 
priests,  in  masks,  represented  the  gods  of  the  under  world. 
Typhon  accuses  the  dead  man,  and  demands  his  punish¬ 
ment.  The  intercessors  plead  for  him.  A  large  pair  of 
scales  is  set  up,  and  in  one  scale  his  conduct  is  placed  in 
a  bottle,  and  in  the  other  an  image  of  truth.  These  pro¬ 
ceedings  are  represented  on  the  funeral  papyri.  One  of 
these,  twenty-two  feet  in  length,  is  in  Dr.  Abbott’s  collec¬ 
tion  of  Egyptian  antiquities,  in  Hew  York.  It  is  beauti¬ 
fully  written,  and  illustrated  with  careful  drawings.  One 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


221 


represents  the  Hall  of  the  Two  Truths,  and  Osiris  sitting 
in  judgment,  with  the  scales  of  judgment  before  him* 

Many  of  the  virtues  which  we  are  apt  to  suppose  a 
monopoly  of  Christian  culture  appear  as  the  ideal  of 
these  old  Egyptians.  Brugsch  says  a  thousand  voices 
from  the  tombs  of  Egypt  declare  this.  One  inscription 
in  Upper  Egypt  says  :  “  He  loved  his  father,  he  honored 
his  mother,  he  loved  his  brethren,  and  never  went  from 
his  home  in  bad-temper.  He  never  preferred  the  great 
man  to  the  low  one.”  Another  says  :  “  I  was  a  wise  man, 
my  soul  loved  God.  I  was  a  brother  to  the  great  men 
and  a  father  to  the  humble  ones,  and  never  was  a  mis¬ 
chief-maker.”  An  inscription  at  Sais,  on  a  priest  who 
lived  in  the  sad  days  of  Cambyses,  says  :  “  I  honored  my 
father,  I  esteemed  my  mother,  I  loved  my  brothers.  I 
found  graves  for  the  unburied  dead.  I  instructed  little 
children.  I  took  care  of  orphans  as  though  they  were 
my  own  children.  For  great  misfortunes  were  on  Egypt 
in  my  time,  and  on  this  city  of  Sais.” 

Some  of  these  declarations,  in  their  “  self-pleasing 
pride”  of  virtue,  remind  one  of  the  noble  justification  of 
himself  by  the  Patriarch  Job.f  Here  is  one  of  them,  from 
the  tombs  of  Ben-Hassan,  over  a  Nomad  Prince :  — 

“  What  I  have  done  I  will  say.  My  goodness  and  my  kind¬ 
ness  were  ample.  I  never  oppressed  the  fatherless  nor  the 
widow.  I  did  not  treat  cruelly  the  fishermen,  the  shepherds, 
or  the  poor  laborers.  There  was  nowhere  in  my  time  hunger 
or  want.  For  I  cultivated  all  my  fields,  far  and  near,  in  order 
that  their  inhabitants  might  have  food.  I  never  preferred  the 
great  and  powerful  to  the  humble  and  poor,  but  did  equal  jus¬ 
tice  to  all.” 

A  king’s  tomb  at  Thebes  gives  us  in  few  words  the  reli¬ 
gious  creed  of  a  Pharaoh  :  — 

“  I  lived  in  truth,  and  fed  my  soul  with  justice.  What  I 
did  to  men  was  done  in  peace,  and  how  I  loved  God,  God  and 
my  heart  well  know.  I  have  given  bread  to  the  hungry,  water 

*  This  Museum  also  contains  three  large  mummies  of  the  sacred  bull 
of  Apis,  a  gold  ring  of  Suphis,  a  gold  necklace  with  the  name  of  Menes, 
and  many  other  remarkable  antiquities, 
t  Book  of  Job,  Chap.  xxix. 


222 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


to  the  thirsty,  clothes  to  the  naked,  and  a  shelter  to  the 
stranger.  I  honored  the  gods  with  sacrifices,  and  the  dead 
with  offerings.” 

A  rock  at  Lycopolis  pleads  for  an  ancient  ruler  thus  : 
“  I  never  took  the  child  from  its  mother’s  bosom,  nor  the 
poor  man  from  the  side  of  his  wife.”  Hundreds  of  stones 
in  Egypt  announce  as  the  best  gifts  which  the  gods  can 
bestow  on  their  favorites,  “  the  respect  of  men,  and  the 
love  of  women.”  *  Beligion,  therefore,  in  Egypt,  con¬ 
nected  itself  with  morality  and  the  duties  of  daily  life. 
But  kings  and  conquerors  were  not  above  the  laws  of  their 
religion.  They  were  obliged  to  recognize  their  power  and 
triumphs  as  not  their  own  work,  but  that  of  the  great 
gods  of  their  country.  Thus,  on  a  monumental  stele  dis¬ 
covered  at  Karnak  by  M.  Mariette,  and  translated  by  De 
Eouge,i*  is  an  inscription  recording  the  triumphs  of  Thoth- 
mes  III.,  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  (about  B.  c.  1600), 
which  sounds  like  the  song  of  Miriam  or  the  Hymn  of 
Deborah.  We  give  some  stanzas  in  which  the  god  Amun 
addresses  Tliothmes  :  — 

“I  am  come  :  to  thee  have  I  given  to  strike  down  Syrian  princes  ; 
Under  thy  feet  they  lie  throughout  the  breadth  of  their  country  ; 

Like  to  the  Lord  of  Light,  I  made  them  see  thy  glory, 

Blinding  their  eyes  with  light,  0  earthly  image  of  Amun  ! 

“  I  am  come  :  to  thee  have  I  given  to  strike  down  Asian  peoples  ; 
Captive  now  thou  hast  led  the  proud  Assyrian  chieftains  ; 

Decked  in  royal  robes,  I  made  them  see  thy  glory  ; 

In  glittering  arms  and  fighting,  high  in  thy  lofty  chariot. 

“  I  am  come  :  to  thee  have  I  given  to  strike  down  western  nations  ; 
Cyprus  and  the  Ases  have  both  heard  thy  name  with  terror  ; 

Like  a  strong-horned  hull  I  made  them  see  thy  glory  ; 

Strong  with  piercing  horns,  so  that  none  can  stand  before  him. 

“  I  am  come  :  to  thee  have  I  given  to  strike  down  Lybian  archers  ; 

All  the  isles  of  the  Greeks  submit  to  the  force  of  thy  spirit ; 

Like  a  regal  lion,  I  made  them  see  thy  glory  ; 

Couched  by  the  corpse  he  has  made,  down  in  the  rocky  valley. 

“  I  am  come  :  to  thee  have  I  given  to  strike  down  the  ends  of  the  ocean. 
In  the  grasp  of  thy  hand  is  the  circling  zone  of  the  waters  ; 

Like  the  soaring  eagle,  I  have  made  them  see  thy  glory, 

Whose  far-seeing  eye  there  is  none  can  hope  to  escape  from.” 

*  Brugsch,  as  above. 

+  Lenormant,  Ancient  History  of  the  East,  I.  234,  in  the  English 
translation. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


223 


A  similar  strain  of  religions  poetry  is  in  the  Papyrus 
of  Sallier,  in  the  British  Museum  *  This  is  an  epic  hy 
an  Egyptian  poet  named  Pentaour,  celebrating  the  cam¬ 
paigns  of  Ramses  II.,  the  Sesostris  of  the  Greeks,  of  the 
nineteenth  dynasty.  This  great  king  had  been  called  into 
Syria  to  put  down  a  formidable  revolt  of  the  Ivlieta  (the 
Hittites  of  the  Old  Testament).  The  poem  seems  to  have 
been  a  famous  one,  for  it  had  the  honor  of  being  carved  in 
full  on  the  walls  at  Karnak,  a  kind  of  immortality  which 
no  other  epic  poet  has  ever  attained.  It  particularly  de¬ 
scribes  an  incident  in  the  war,  when,  by  a  stratagem  of  the 
enemy,  King  Ramses  found  himself  separated  from  the 
main  body  of  his  army  and  attacked  by  the  enemy  in 
full  force.  Pentaour  describes  him  in  this  situation  as 
calling  on  Ainun,  God  of  Thebes,  for  help,  recounting  the 
sacrifices  he  had  offered  to  him,  and  asking  whether  he 
wTould  let  him  die  in  this  extremity  by  the  ignoble  hands 
of  these  Syrian  tribes.  “  Have  I  not  erected  to  thee  great 
temples  ?  Have  I  not  sacrificed  to  thee  thirty  thousand 
oxen  ?  I  have  brought  from  Elepliantina  obelisks  to  set 
up  to  thy  name.  I  invoke  thee,  0  my  father,  Amun.  I 
4  am  in  the  midst  of  a  throng  of  unknown  tribes,  and  alone. 
But  Amun  is  better  to  me  than  thousands  of  archers  and 
millions  of  horsemen.  Amun  will  prevail  over  the  enemy.” 
And,  after  defeating  his  foes,  in  his  song  of  triumph,  the 
king  says,  “  Amun-Ra  has  been  at  my  right  and  my  left 
in  the  battles ;  his  mind  has  inspired  my  own,  and  has 
prepared  the  downfall  of  my  enemies.  Amun-Ra,  my 
father,  has  brought  the  whole  world  to  my  feet.”  -f* 

Thus  universal  and  thus  profound  was  the  religious 
sentiment  among  the  Egyptians. 

§  3.  Theology  of  Egypt.  Sources  of  our  Knowledge  con¬ 
cerning  it. 

As  regards  the  theology  of  the  Egyptians  and  their 
system  of  ideas,  we  meet  with  difficulty  from  the  law  of 
secrecy  which  was  their  habit  of  mind.  The  Egyptian 

*  Translated  by  De  Rouge.  See  Revue  Contemporaine,  August,  1856. 

T  Egypt  3300  Years  ago.  By  Lanoye. 


224 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


priesthood  enveloped  with  mystery  every  opinion,  just  as 
they  swathed  the  mummies,  fold  above  fold,  in  preparing 
them  for  the  tomb.  The  names  and  number  of  their  gods 
we  learn  from  the  monuments.  Their  legends  concerning 
them  come  to  us  through  Plutarch,  Herodotus,  Diodorus, 
and  other  Greek  writers.  Their  doctrine  of  a  future  life 
and  future  judgment  is  apparent  in  their  ceremonies,  the 
pictures  on  the  tombs,  and  the  papyrus  Book  of  the  Dead. 
But  what  these  gods  mean ,  what  are  their  offices,  how 
they  stand  related  to  each  other  and  to  mankind,  what  is 
the  ethical  bearing  of  the  religion,  it  is  not  so  easy  to 
learn. 


Nevertheless,  we  may  find  a  clew  to  a  knowledge  of  this 
system,  if  in  no  other  way,  at  least  by  ascertaining  its 
central,  ruling  idea,  and  pursuing  this  into  its  details. 
The  moment  that  we  take  this  course,  light  will  begin  to 
dawn-  upon  us.  But  before  going  further,  let  us  brieliy 
inquire  into  the  sources  of  our  knowledge  of  Egyptian 
mythology. 

The  first  and  most  important  place  is  occupied  by  the 
monuments,  which  contain  the  names  and  tablets  of  the 
gods  of  the  three  orders.  Then  come  the  sacred  books  of  the 
Egyptians,  known  to  us  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus.  From 
him  we  learn  that  the  Egyptians  in  his  time  had  forty-two 
sacred  books  in  live  classes.  The  first  class,  containing 
songs  or  hymns  in  praise  of  the  gods,  were  very  old, 
dating  perhaps  from  the  time  of  Menes.  The  other  books 
treated  of  morals,  astronomy,  hieroglyphics,  geography, 
ceremonies,  the  deities,  the  education  oi*  priests,  and  medi¬ 
cine.  Of  these  sacred  Hermaic  books,  one  is  still  extant, 
and  perhaps  it  is  as  interesting  as  any  of  them.  We  have 
two  copies  of  it,  both  on  papyrus,  one  found  by  the  French  at 
Thebes,  the  other  by  Chanipollion  in  Turin.  And  Lepsius 
considers  this  last  papyrus  to  be  wholly  of  the  date  of  the 
eighteenth  or  nineteenth  dynasty,  consequently  fifteen  hun¬ 
dred  or  sixteen  hundred  years  before  Christ,  and  the  only 
example  of  an  Egyptian  book  transmitted  from  the  times 
of  the  Pharaohs.  Bunsen  believes  it  to  belong  to  the 
fourth  class  of  Hermaic  books,  containing  Ordinances  as 
to  the  First  Fruits,  Sacrifices,  Hymns,  and  Prayers.  In 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


225 


this  book  the  deceased  is  the  person  who  officiates.  His 
soul  journeying  on  gives  utterance  to  prayers,  confessions, 
invocations.  The  first  fifteen  chapters,  which  make  a 
connected  whole,  are  headed,  “  Here  begins  the  Sections  of 
the  Glorification  in  the  Light  of  Osiris.”  It  is  illustrated 
by  a  picture  of  a  procession,  in  which  the  deceased  soul 
follows  his  own  corpse  as  chief  mourner,  offering  prayers 
to  the  Sun-God.  Another  part  of  the  book  is  headed, 
“The  Book  of  Deliverance,  in  the  Hall  of  twofold  Justice,” 
and  contains  the  divine  judgments  on  the  deceased.  Forty- 
two  gods  occupy  the  judgment-seat.  Osiris,  their  presi¬ 
dent,  bears  on  his  breast  the  small  tablet  of  chief  judge, 
containing  a  figure  of  Justice.  Before  him  are  seen  the 
scales  of  divine  judgment.  In  one  is  placed  the  statue 
of  Justice,  and  in  the  other  the  heart  of  the  deceased,  who 
stands  in  person  by  the  balance  containing  his  heart, 
while  Anubis  watches  the  other  scale.  Ilorus  examines 
the  plummet  indicating  which  way  the  beam  inclines. 
Thoth,  the  Justifier  the  Lord  of  the  Divine  Word,  records 
the  sentence.* 


§  4.  Central  Idea  of  Egyptian  Theology  and  Bcligion. 

Animal  Worship. 

We  now  proceed  to  ask  what  is  the  Idea  of  Egyptian 
mythology  and  theology  ? 

We  have  seen  that  the  idea  of  the  religion  of  India  was 

*  Beside  the  monuments  and  the  papyri,  we  have  as  sources  of  infor¬ 
mation  the  remains  of  the  Egyptian  historians  Manetho  and  Eratosthenes  ; 
the  Greek  accounts  of  Egypt  by  Herodotus,  Plato,  Diodorus  Siculus, 
Plutarch,  Jamblichus  ;  and  the  modern  researches  of  Heeren,  Chain  - 
pollion,  Rossalini,  Young,  Wilkinson.  The  more  recent  writers  to  l>e 
consulted  are  as  follows:  — 

Bunsen’s  “^Egypten’s  Stellein  der  Weltgeschichte.  Hamburg.”  (First 
volume  printed  in  1845.)  This  great  work  was  translated  by  C.  C.  Cot- 
trel  in  five  8vo  volumes,  the  last  published  in  18(57,  after  the  death  of 
both  author  and  translator.  The  fifth  volume  of  the  translation  contains  a 
full  translation  of  the  “  Book  of  the  Dead,”  by  the  learned  Samuel  Birch 
of  the  British  Museum. 

Essays  in  the  Revue  Archeologique  and  other  learned  periodicals,  by 
the  Vicomte  de  Rouge,  Professor  of  Egyptian  Philology  at  Paris.  Works , 
by  M.  Chabas,  M.  Mariette,  Do  Brugsch,  “Aus  dom  Orient,”  etc.,  Sam¬ 
uel  Sharpe,  A.  Maurv,  Lepsius,  and  others. 

l'o* 


o 


226 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Spirit ;  the  One,  the  Infinite,  the  Eternal ;  a  pure  spiritual 
Pantheism,  from  which  the  elements  of  time  and  space 
are  quite  excluded.  The  religion  of  Egypt  stands  at 
the  opposite  pole  of  thought  as  its  antagonist.  Instead 
of  Spirit,  it  accepts  Body;  instead  of  Unity,  Variety; 
instead  of  Substance,  Form.  It  is  the  physical  reaction 
from  Brahmanism.  Instead  of  the  worship  of  abstract 
Deity,  it  gives  us  the  most  concrete  divinity,  wholly 
incarnated  in  space  and  time.  Instead  of  abstract  con¬ 
templation,  it  gives  us  ceremonial  worship.  Instead  of 
the  absorption  of  man  into  God,  it  gives  us  transmigration 
through  all  bodily  forms.*  It  so  completely  incarnates 
God,  as  to  make  every  type  of  animal  existence  divine ; 
hence  the  worship  of  animals.  It  makes  body  so  sacred, 
that  the  human  body  must  not  he  allowed  to  perish.  As 
the  Brahman,  contemplating  eternity,  forgot  time,  and  had 

*  The  Egyptian  doctrine  of  transmigration  differed  from  that  of  the 
Hindoos  in  this  respect,  that  no  idea  of  retribution  seems  to  he  connected 
with  it.  According  to  Herodotus  (II.  123),  the  soul  must  pass  through 
all  animals,  fishes,  insects,  and  birds  ;  in  short,  must  complete  the  whole 
circuit  of  animated  existence,  before  it  again  enters  the  body  of  a  man ; 
“and  this  circuit  of  the  soul,”  be  adds,  “is  performed  in  three  thousand 
years.”  According  to  him,  it  does  not  begin  “until  the  body  decays.” 
This  may  give  us  one  explanation  of  the  system  of  embalming  ;  for  if  the 
circuit  of  transmigration  is  limited  to  three  thousand  years,  and  the  soul 
cannot  leave  the  body  till  it  decays  (the  words  of  Herodotus  are,  “the 
body  decaying,”  toD  ad)/j.a.To$  5e  Karacpdivovros),  then  if  embalming 
delays  decay  for  one  thousand  years,  so  much  is  taken  off'  from  the 
journey  through  animals.  That  the  soul  was  believed  to  be  kept  with 
the  body  as  long  as  it  was  undecayed  is  also  expressly  stated  by  Servius 
(Comm,  on  the  rihieid  of  Virgil):  “The  learned  Egyptians  preserve  the 
corpse  from  decay  in  tombs  in  order  that  its  soul  shall  remain  with  it, 
and  not  quickly  pass  into  other  bodies.” 

Hence,  too,  the  extraordinary  pains  taken  in  ornamenting  the  tombs,  as 
the  permanent  homes  of  the  dead  during  a  long  period.  Diodorus  says 
that  they  ornamented  the  tombs  as  the  enduring  residences  of  mankind. 

Transmigration  in  India  was  retribution,  but  in  Egypt  it  seems  to 
have  been  a  condition  of  progress.  It  was  going  back  into  the  lower 
organizations,  to  gather  up  all  their  varied  life,  to  add  to  our  own.  So 
Tennyson.-suggests,  — 

“If,  through  lower  lives  I  came, 

Though  all  experience  past  became 
Consolidate  in  mind  and  frame,”  etc. 

Beside  the  reason  for  embalming  given  above,  there  may  have  been  the 
: motive  arising  from  the  respect  for  bodily  organization,  so  deeply  rooted 
in  the  Egyptian  mind. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


227 


no  history,  so  on  the  other  hand  the  Egyptian  priest,  to 
whom  every  moment  of  time  is  sacred,  records  everything 
and  turns  every  event  into  history;  and  as  it  enshrines 
the  past  time  historically  on  monuments,  so  it  takes  hold 
of  future  time  prophetically  through  oracles. 

The  chief  peculiarity  about  the  religion  of  Egypt,  and 
that  which  has  always  caused  the  greatest  astonishment  to 
foreigners,  was  the  worship  of  animals.  Herodotus  says 
(Book  II.  §  65),  “  That  all  animals  in  Egypt,  wild  and 
tame,  are  accounted  sacred,  and  that  if  any  one  kills  these 
animals  wilfully  he  is  put  to  death.”  He  is,  however, 
mistaken  in  asserting  that  all  animals  are  sacred ;  for 
many  were  not  so,  though  the  majority  were.  Wilkinson 
gives  a  list  of  the  animals  of  Egypt  to  the  number  of 
over  one  hundred,  more  than  half  of  which  were  sacred, 
and  the  others  not.  As  hunting  and  fishing  were  favorite 
sports  of  the  Egyptians,  it  is  apparent  that  there  must 
have  been  animals  whom  it  was  lawful  to  kill.  Never¬ 
theless,  it  is  certain  that  animal  worship  is  a  striking 
peculiarity  of  the  Egyptian  system.  Cows  were  sacred  to 
Isis,  and  Isis  was  represented  in  the  form  of  a  cow.  The 
gods  often  wore  the  heads  of  animals ;  and  Kneph,  or 
Amun,  with  the  ram’s  head,  is  one  of  the  highest  of  the 
gods,  known  among  the  Greeks  as  Jupiter  Ammon.  The 
worship  of  Apis,  the  sacred  bull  of  Memphis,  the  repre¬ 
sentative  of  Osiris,  was  very  important  among  the  Egyp¬ 
tian  ceremonies.  Plutarch  says  that  he  was  a  fair  and 
beautiful  image  of  the  soul  of  Osiris.  He  was  a  bull 
with  black  hair,  a  white  spot  on  his  forehead,  and  some 
other  special  marks.  He  was  kept  at  Memphis  in  a 
splendid  temple.  His  festival  lasted  seven  days,  when  a 
great  concourse  of  people  assembled.  When  he  died  his 
body  was  embalmed  and  buried  with  great  pomp,  and 
the  priests  went  in  search  of  another  Apis,  who,  when 
discovered  by  the  marks,  was  carried  to  Memphis,  care¬ 
fully  fed  and  exercised,  and  consulted  as  an  oracle.  The 
burial-place  of  the  Apis  bulls  was,  a  few  years  ago,  dis¬ 
covered  near  Memphis.  It  consists  of  an  arched  gallery 
hewn  in  the  rock,  two  thousand  feet  long  and  twenty  feet 
in  height  and  breadth.  On  each  side  is  a  series  of  re- 


228 


TEN  GKEAT  EELIGIONS. 


cesses,  each  containing  a  large  sarcophagus  of  granite, 
fifteen  by  eight  feet,  in  which  the  body  of  a  sacred  bull 
was  deposited.  In  1852  thirty  of  these  had  been  already 
found.  Before  this  tomb  is  a  paved  road  with  lions 
ranged  on  each  side,  and  before  this  a  temple  with  a  ves¬ 
tibule. 

In  different  parts  of  Egypt  different  animals  were  held 
sacred.  The  animal  sacred  in  one  place  was  not  so  re¬ 
garded  in  another  district.  These  sacred  animals  were 
embalmed  by  the  priests  and  buried,  and  the  mummies  of 
dogs,  wolves,  birds,  and  crocodiles  are  found  by  thousands 
in  the  tombs.  The  origin  and  motive  of  this  worship  is 
differently  explained.  It  is  certain  that  animals  were  not 
worshipped  in  the  same  way  as  the  great  gods,  but  were 
held  sacred  and  treated  with  reverence  as  containing  a 
divine  element.  So,  in  the  East,  an  insane  person  is  ac¬ 
counted  sacred,  but  is  not  worshipped.  So  the  Roman 
Catholics  distinguish  between  Dulia  and  Latria,  between 
the  worship  of  gods  and  reverence  of  saints.  So,  too, 
Protestants  consider  the  Bible  a  holy  book  and  the  Sab¬ 
bath  a  holy  day,  but  without  worshipping  them.  It  is 
only  just  to  make  a  similar  distinction  on  behalf  of 
the  Egyptians.  The  motives  usually  assigned  for  this 
worship  —  motives  of  utility  —  seem  no  adequate  expla¬ 
nation.  “  The  Egyptians,”  says  Wilkinson,  “  may  have 
deified  some  animals  to  insure  their  preservation,  some 
to  prevent  their  unwholesome  meat  being  used  as  food.” 
But  no  religion  was  ever  established  in  this  way.  Man 
does  not  worship  from  utilitarian  considerations,  but  from 
an  instinct  of  reverence.  It  is  possible,  indeed,  that  such 
a  reverential  instinct  may  have  been  awakened  towards 
certain  animals,  by  seeing  their  vast  importance  arising, 
from  their  special  instincts  and  faculties.  The  cow  and  the 
ox,  the  dog,  the  ibis,  and  the  cat,  may  thus  have  appeared 
to  the  Egyptians,  from  their  indispensable  utility,  to  be 
endowed  with  supernatural  gifts.  But  this  feeling  itself 
must  have  had  its  root  in  a  yet  deeper  tendency  of  the 
Egyptian  mind.  They  reverenced  the  mysterious  manifes¬ 
tation  of  God  in  all  outward  nature.  No  one  can  look  at 
an  animal,  before  custom  blinds  our  sense  of  strangeness, 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


229 


without  a  feeling  of  wonder  at  the  law  of  instinct,  and 
the  special,  distinct  peculiarity  which  belongs  to  it.  Every 
variety  of  animals  is  a  manifestation  of  a  divine  thought, 
and  yet  a  thought  hinted  rather  than  expressed.  Each 
must  mean  something,  must  symbolize  something.  But 
what  does  it  mean  ?  what  does  it  symbolize  ?  Continually 
we  seem  just  on  the  point  of  penetrating  the  secret ;  we 
almost  touch  the  explanation,  but  are  baffled.  A  dog, 
a  cat,  a  snake,  a  crocodile,  a  spider,  —  what  does  each 
mean  ?  why  were  they  made  ?  why  this  infinite  variety  of 
form,  color,  faculty,  character  ?  Animals  thus  in  their 
unconscious  being,  as  expressions  of  God’s  thoughts,  are 
mysteries,  and  divine  mysteries.* 

Now  every  part  of  the  religion  of  Egypt  shows  how 
much  they  were  attracted  toward  variety,  toward  na¬ 
ture,  toward  the  outward  manifestations  of  the  Divine 
Spirit.  These  tendencies  reached  their  utmost  point  in 
their  reverence  for  animal  life.  The  shallow  Romans,  who 
reverenced  only  themselves,  and  the  Greeks,  who  wor¬ 
shipped  nothing  but  human  nature  more  or  less  idealized, 
laughed  at  this  Egyptian  worship  of  animals  and  plants. 
“  0  sacred  nation !  whose  gods  grow  in  gardens  !  ”  says 
Juvenal.  But  it  certainly  shows  a  deeper  wisdom  to  see 
something  divine  in  nature,  and  to  find  God  in  nature, 
than  to  call  it  common  and  unclean.  And  there  is  more 
of  truth  in  the  Egyptian  reverence  for  animal  individ¬ 
uality,  than  in  the  unfeeling  indifference  to  the  welfare 
of  these  poor  relations  which  Christians  often  display. 
When  Jesus  said  that  “not  a  sparrow  falls  to  the  ground 
without  your  Father,”  he  showed  all  these  creatures  to 
be  under  the  protection  of  their  Maker.  It  may  be  fool¬ 
ish  to  worship  animals,  but  it  is  still  more  foolish  to 
despise  them. 

That  the  belief  in  transmigration  is  the  explanation  of 
animal  worship  is  the  opinion  of  Bunsen.  The  human 
soul  and  animal  soul,  according  to  this  view,  are  essen- 

*  Animals  and  plants,  more  than  anything  else,  and  animals  more  than 
plants,  are  the  types  of  variety  ;  they  embody  that  great  law  of  differen¬ 
tiation,  one  of  the  main  laws  of  the  universe,  the  law  which  is  opposed 
to  that  of  unity,  the  law  of  centrifugal  force,  expressed  in  our  humble 
proverb,  “It  takes  all  sorts  of  people  to  make  a  world.” 


230 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


tially  the  same,  —  therefore  the  animal  was  considered  as 
sacred  as  man.  Still,  we  do  not  ivorship  man.  Animal 
worship,  then,  must  have  had  a  still  deeper  root  in  the 
sense  of  awe  before  the  mystery  of  organized  life. 

§  5.  Sources  of  Egyptian  Theology.  Age  of  the  Empire 

and  Affinities  of  the  Eace. 

But  whence  came  this  tendency  in  the  human  mind  ? 
Bid  it  inhere  in  the  race,  or  was  it  the  growth  of  external 
circumstances  ?  Something,  perhaps,  may  be  granted  to 
each  of  these  causes.  The  narrow  belt  of  fertile  land  in 
Egypt,  fed  by  the  overflowing  Nile,  quickened  by  the 
tropical  sun,  teeming  with  inexhaustible  powers  of  life, 
continually  called  the  mind  anew  to  the  active,  creative 
powers  of  nature.  And  yet  it  may  be  suspected  that  the 
law  of  movement  by  means  of  antagonism  and  reaction 
may  have  had  its  influence  also  here.  The  opinion  is  now 
almost  universal,  that  the  impulse  of  Egyptian  civilization 
proceeded  from  Asia.  This  is  the  conclusion  of  Bunsen 
at  the  end  of  his  first  volume.  “  The  cradle  of  the  my¬ 
thology  and  language  of  Egypt/’  says  he,  “  is  Asia.  This 
result  is  arrived  at  by  the  various  ethnological  proofs  of 
language  which  finds  Sanskrit  words  and  forms  in  Egypt, 
and  of  comparative  anatomy,  which  shows  the  oldest  Egyp¬ 
tian  skulls  to  have  belonged  to  Caucasian  races.”  If,  then, 
Egyptian  civilization  proceeded  from  Central  Asia,  Egyp¬ 
tian  mythology  and  religion  probably  came  as  a  quite  nat¬ 
ural  reaction  from  the  extreme  spiritualism  of  the  Hindoos. 
The  question  which  remains  is,  whether  they  arrived  at 
their  nature-worship  directly  or  indirectly  ;  whether,  be¬ 
ginning  with  Eetichism,  they  ascended  to  their  higher 
conceptions  of  the  immortal  gods ;  or,  beginning  with 
spiritual  existence,  they  traced  it  downward  into  its 
material  manifestations ;  whether,  in  short,  their  system 
was  one  of  evolution  or  emanation.  For  every  ancient 
tlieogony,  cosmogony,  or  ontogony  is  of  one  kind  or 
the  other.  According  to  the  systems  of  India  and  of 
Platonism,  the  generation  of  beings  is  by  the  method  of 
emanation.  Creation  is  a  falling  away,  or  an  emanation 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


231 


from  the  absolute.  But  the  systems  of  Greek  and  Scan¬ 
dinavian  mythology  are  of  the  opposite  sort.  In  these, 
spirit  is  evolved  from  matter ;  matter  up  to  spirit  works. 
They  begin  with  the  lowest  form  of  being,  —  night,  chaos, 
a  mundane  egg,  —  and  evolve  the  higher  gods  therefrom. 

It  is  probable  that  we  find  in  Egypt  a  double  tendency. 
One  is  the  Asiatic  spiritualism,  the  other  the  African 
naturalism.  The  union  of  the  ideal  and  the  real,  of 
thought  and  passion,  of  the  aspirations  of  the  soul  and  the 
fire  of  a  passionate  nature,  of  abstract  meditation  and 
concrete  life,  had  for  its  result  the  mysterious  theology 
and  philosophy  which,  twenty  centuries  after  its  burial 
under  the  desert  sands,  still  rouses  our  curiosity  to  pene¬ 
trate  the  secret  of  this  Sphinx  of  the  Nile. 

We  have  seen  in  a  former  section  that  the  institutions 
of  Egypt,  based  on  a  theocratic  monarchy,  reach  back  into 
a  dim  and  doubtful  antiquity.  Monuments,  extending 
through  thirty-five  centuries,  attest  an  age  preceding  all 
written  history.  These  monuments,  so  far  as  deciphered 
by  modern  Egyptologists,  have  confirmed  the  accuracy  of 
the  lists  of  kings  which  have  come  to  us  from  Manetho. 
We  have  no  monument  anterior  to  the  fourth  dynasty, 
but  at  that  epoch  we  find  the  theocracy  fully  organized.* 
The  general  accuracy  of  Manetho’s  list  has  been  demon¬ 
strated  by  the  latest  discoveries  of  M.  Mariette,  and  has 
rendered  doubtful  the  idea  of  any  of  the  dynasties  being 
contemporaneous. 

The  main  chronological  points,  however,  are  by  no 
means  as  yet  fixed.  Thus,  the  beginning  of  the  first 
dynasty  is  placed  by  Bockh  at  B.  c.  5702,  by  Lepsius  B.  c. 
3892,  by  Bunsen  B.  c.  3623,  by  Brugsch  B.  c.  4455,  by 
Lauth  B.  c.  4157,  by  Duncker  3233.*f*  The  period  of  the 
builders  of  the  great  Pyramids  is  fixed  by  Bunsen  at  B.  c. 
3229,  by  Lepsius  at  B.  c.  3124,  by  Brugsch  at  b.  c.  3686, 
by  Lauth  at  B.  c.  3450,  and  by  Bockh  at  B.  c.  4933.J 

*  Maury,  “Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  1867.”  “Man’s  Origin  and 
Destiny,  J.  P.  Lesley,  1868.”  “Recherches  sur  les  Monuniens,  etc.,  par 
M.  de  Rouge,  1S66.” 

t  Article  “iEgypten,”  in  Schenkel’s  Bibel-Lexicon,  1869.  Duncker, 
“  Geschichte  des  Alterthums,  Dritte  Aullage,  1863.” 

+  See  Duncker,  as  above. 


232 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  Egyptian  priests  told  Herodotus  that  there  were 
three  hundred  and  thirty-one  kings,  from  Menes  to  Moeris, 
whose  names  they  read  out  of  a  book.  After  him  came 
eleven  others,  of  whom  Sethos  was  the  last.  From 
Osiris  to  Amasis  they  counted  fifteen  thousand  years, 
though  Herodotus  did  not  believe  this  statement.  If 
the  three  hundred  and  forty-two  kings  really  existed,  it 
would  make  Menes  come  B.  c.  9150,  —  at  an  average  of 
twenty -five  years’  reign  to  each  king.  Diodorus  saw  in 
Egypt  a  list  of  four  hundred  and  seventy-nine  kings.  But 
he  says  in  another  place  that  Menes  lived  about  four  thou¬ 
sand  seven  hundred  years  before  his  time.  Manetlio  tells 
us  that  from  Menes  there  were  thirty  dynasties,  who 
reigned  five  thousand  three  hundred  and  sixty-six  years. 
But  he  gives  a  list  of  four  hundred  and  seventy-two  kings 
in  these  dynasties,  to  the  time  of  Cambyses.  The  con¬ 
tradictions  are  so  great,  and  the  modes  of  reconciling 
Manetlio,  Herodotus,  Diodorus,  Eratosthenes,  and  the 
monuments  are  so  inadequate,  that  we  must  regard  the 
whole  question  of  the  duration  of  the  monarchy  as  unset¬ 
tled.  But  from  the  time  when  the  calendar  must  have 
been  fixed,  from  the  skill  displayed  in  the  Pyramids,  and 
other  reasons  independent  of  any  chronology,  Duncker 
considers  the  reign  of  Menes  as  old  as  B.  c.  3500. 

The  history  of  Egypt  is  divided  into  three  periods, 
that  of  the  old,  the  middle,  and  the  new  monarchy.  The 
first  extends  from  the  foundation  of  the  united  kingdom 
by  Menes  to  the  conquest  of  the  country  by  the  Hyksos. 
The  second  is  from  this  conquest  by  the  Hyksos  till  their 
expulsion.  The  third,  from  the  re-establishment  of  the 
monarchy  by  Amosis  to  its  final  conquest  by  Persia. 
The  old  monarchy  contained  twelve  dynasties  ;  the  Hyk¬ 
sos  or  middle  monarchy,  five ;  the  new  monarchy,  thir¬ 
teen  :  in  all,  thirty. 

The  Hyksos,  or  Shepherd  Kings,  were  at  first  supposed 
to  be  the  Hebrews :  but  this  hypothesis  adapted  itself 
to  none  of  the  facts.  A  recent  treatise  by  M.  Chabas  * 
’  shows  that  the  Hyksos  were  an  Asiatic  people,  occupying 
the  country  to  the  northeast  of  Egypt.  After  conquer- 

*  Les  Pasteurs  en  Egypt,  par  F.  Cliabas.  Amsterdam,  1868. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


233 


in g  Lower  Egypt,  Apapi  was  king  of  the  Hyksos  and 
Tekenen-Ba  ruled  over  the  native  Egyptians  of  the 
South.  A  papyrus,  as  interpreted  by  M.  Chabas,  narrates 
that  King  Apapi  worshipped  only  the  god  Sutech  (Set), 
and  refused  to  allow  the  Egyptian  gods  to  be  adored. 
This  added  to  the  war  of  races  a  war  of  religion,  which 
resulted  in  the  final  expulsion  of  the  Shepherds,  about 
B.  c.  1700.  The  Hyksos  are  designated  on  the  monu¬ 
ments  and  in  the  papyri  as  the  “  Scourge  ”  or  “  Plague,’' 
equivalent  in  Hebrew  to  the  Tzir’ah,  commonly  translated 
“  hornet,”  but  evidently  the  same  as  the  Hebrew  tzavaath, 
“  plague,”  and  the  Arabic  tzeria ,  “  scourge,”  or  "  plague.”  * 

According  to  the  learned  Egyptologist,  Dr.  Brugsch, 
the  Hebrew  slaves  in  Egypt  are  referred  to  in  a  papyrus 
in  the  British  Museum  of  the  date  of  Bamses  II.  (b.  c. 
1400),  in  a  description  by  a  scribe  named  Pinebsa,  of  the 
new  city  of  Bamses.  He  tells  how  the  slaves  throng 
around  him  to  present  petitions  against  their  overseers. 
Another  papyrus  reads  (Lesley,  “  Man’s  Origin  and  Des¬ 
tiny  ”) :  “  The  people  have  erected  twelve  buildings. 
They  made  their  tale  of  bricks  daily,  till  they  were 
finished.”  The  first  corroboration  of  the  biblical  narra¬ 
tive  which  the  Egyptian  monuments  afford,  and  the  first 
synchronism  between  Jewish  and  Egyptian  history,  ap¬ 
pear  in  the  reign  of  Bamses  II.,  about  b.  c.  1400,  in  the 
nineteenth  dynasty. 

It  appears  from  the  monuments  and  from  the  histo¬ 
rians  that  somewhere  about  B.  c.  2000,  or  earlier,  this  great 
movement  of  warlike  nomadic  tribes  occurred,  which 
resulted  in  the  conquest  of  Lower  Egypt  by  the  pastoral 
people  known  as  Hyksos.  It  was  perhaps  a  movement 
of  Semitic  races,  the  Bedouins  of  the  desert,  like  that 
which  nearly  three  thousand  years  after  united  them  as 
warriors  of  Islam  to  overflow  North  Africa,  Syria,  Persia, 
arid  Spain.  They  oppressed  Egypt  for  five  hundred  years 
(Brugsch),  and  appear  on  the  monuments  under  the  name 
of  Amu  (the  herdsmen)  or  of  Aadu  (the  hated  ones). 

*  The  “  hornets,’'  Ex.  xxiii.  28,  and  Josh.  xxiv.  11,  12,  are  not  insects, 
hut  the  Hyksos,  who,  driven  from  Egypt  were  overrunning  Syria.  Se$ 
New  York  Nation,  article  on  the  HyksOs,  May  13,  1869. 


234 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS- 


Their  kings  resided  at  Tanis  (in  Egyptian  Avaris),  in  the 
Delta.  That  their  conquests  had  a  religious  motive,  and 
were  made,  like  that  of  Mohammed,  in  the  interest  of 
monotheism,  seems  possible.  At  all  events,  we  find  one  of 
them,  Apapi,  erecting  a  temple  to  Sutech  (the  Semitic 
Baal),  and  refusing  to  allow  the  worship  of  other  deities.* 

The  majority  of  Egyptologists  believe  that  the  Hebrews 
entered  Egypt  while  these  Hyksos  kings,  men  of  the 
same  Semitic  family  and  monotheistic  tendencies,  were 
ruling  in  Lower  Egypt.  The  bare  subterranean  temple 
discovered  by  M.  Mariette,  with  the  well  near  it  fdled 
with  broken  statues  of  the  Egyptian  gods,  is  an  indica¬ 
tion  of  those  tendencies.  The  “  other  king,  who  knew 
not  Joseph,”  was  a  king  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  who 
conquered  the  Hyksos  and  drove  them  out  of  Egypt. 
Apparently  the  course  of  events  was  like  that  which 
many  centuries  later  occurred  in  Spain.  In  both  cases, 
the  original  rulers  of  the  land,  driven  to  the  mountains, 
gradually  reconquered  their  country  step  by  step.  The 
result  of  this  reconquest  of  the  country  would  also  be  in 
Egypt,  as  it  was  in  Spain,  that  the  Semitic  remnants  left  in 
the  land  would  be  subject  to  a  severe  and  oppressive  rule. 
The  Jews  in  Egypt,  like  the  Moors  in  Spain,  were  victims 
of  a  cruel  bondage.  Then  began  the  most  splendid  period 
of  Egyptian  history,  during  the  seventeenth,  sixteenth, 
fifteenth,  and  fourteenth  centuries  before  Christ.  The 
Egyptian  armies  overran  Syria,  Asia  Minor,  and  Armenia 
as  far  as  the  Tigris. 

Bamses  II.,  the  most  powerful  monarch  of  this  epoch, 
is  probably  the  king  whose  history  is  given  by  Herodo¬ 
tus  and  other  Greek  writers  under  the  name  of  Sesostris.*f* 
M.  de  Rouge  believes  himself  able  to  establish  this  iden¬ 
tity.  He  found  in  the  Museum  at  Vienna  a  stone  covered 
with  inscriptions,  and  dedicated  by  a  person  whose  name 
is  given  as  Ramses  Mei-Amoun,  exactly  in  the  hiero- 
glypliics  of  the  great  king.  But  this  person’s  name  is  also 

*  Pap.  Tallier  (Bunsen  IV.  671)  as  translated  by  De  Rouge,  Goodwin, 
&c.  :  “In  the  days  when  the  land  of  Egypt  was  held  by  the  invaders, 
King  Apapi  (at  Avaris)  set  up  Sutekh  for  his  lord  ;  he  worshipped  no 
other  god  in  the  whole  land.” 

f  I  follow  here  De  Rouge,  Brugseh,  and  Duncker,  rather  than  Bunsen. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


235 


written  elsewhere  on  the  stone  Ses,  and  a  third  time  as 
Ses  Mei-amoun,  showing  that  Ses  was  a  common  abbrevia¬ 
tion  of  Ramses.  It  is  also  written  Sesu,  or  Sesesu,  which 
is  very  like  the  form  in  which  Diodorus  writes  Sesostris, 
namely,  Sesoosis *  Now  Ramses  II.,  whose  reign  falls 
about  B.  c.  1400,  erected  a  chain  of  fortresses  to  defend 
the  northeastern  border  of  Egypt  against  the  Syrian 
nomads.  One  of  these  fortresses  was  named  from  the 
King  Ramses,  and  another  Paclitum.  The  papyri  con¬ 
tain  accounts  of  these  cities.  One  papyrus,  in  the  Brit¬ 
ish  Museum, is  a  description  by  a  scribe  named  Pinebsa, 
of  the  aspect  of  the  city  Ramses,  and  of  the  petitions  of 
the  laborers  for  relief  against  their  overseers.  These 
laborers  are  called  Ajpuru ,  Hebrews.  In  a  papyrus  of  the 
Leyden  Museum,  an  officer  reports  to  his  superior  thus : 
“  May  my  lord  be  pleased.  I  have  distributed  food  to  the 
soldiers  and  to  the  Hebrews,  dragging  stones  for  the  great 
city  Ramses  Meia-moum.  I  gave  them  food  monthly.” 
This  corresponds  with  the  passage  (Exodus  i.  11) :  “  They 
built  for  Pharaoh  treasure-cities,  Pitliom  and  Raam- 
ses.”  J 

The  birth  of  Moses  fell  under  the  reign  of  Ramses  II. 
The  Exodus  was  under  that  of  his  successor,  Menepthes. 
This  king  had  fallen  on  evil  times ;  his  power  was  much 
inferior  to  that  of  his  great  predecessor ;  and  he  even 
condescended  to  propitiate  the  anti-Egyptian  element,  by 
worshipping  its  gods.  He  has  left  his  inscription  on 
the  monuments  with  the  title,  “Worshipper  of  Sutech- 
Baal  in  Tanis.”  The  name  of  Moses  is  Egyptian,  and  sig¬ 
nifies  “  the  child.” 

“  Joseph,”  says  Brugsch,  “  was  never  at  the  court  of 
an  Egyptian  Pharaoh,  but  found  his  place  with  the  Se¬ 
mitic  monarchs,  who  reigned  at  Avaris-Tanis  in  the  Delta, 
and  whose  power  extended  from  this  point  as  far  as  Memphis 

*  Athenaeum  Franfjais,  1856. 

t  Lesley,  Man’s  Origin  and  Destiny,  p.  149.  Brugsch,  Aus  dem  Orient, 
p.  37.  . 

+  A  common  title  on  the  monuments  for  the  king  is  Per-aa,  m  the 
dialect  of  Upper  Egypt,  Pher-ao  in  that  of  Lower  Egypt,  meaning  “  The 
lofty  house,”  equivalent  to  the  modern  Turkish  title,  “The  Sublime 
Porte.” 


236 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


and  Heliopolis.”  The  "  king  who  knew  not  J oseph  ”  was 
evidently  the  restored  Egyptian  dynasty  of  Thebes.  These 
monarclis  would  be  naturally  averse  to  all  the  Palestin¬ 
ian  inhabitants  of  the  land.  And  the  monuments  of  their 
reigns  represent  the  labors  of  subject  people,  under  task¬ 
masters,  cutting,  carrying,  and  laying  stones  for  the  walls 
of  cities. 

To  what  race  do  the  Egyptians  belong  ?  The  only  his¬ 
toric  document  which  takes  us  back  so  far  as  this  is  the 
list  of  nations  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis.  We  can¬ 
not,  indeed,  determine  the  time  when  it  was  written.  But 
Bunsen,  Ebers,*  and  other  ethnologists  are  satisfied  that 
the  author  of  this  chapter  had  a  knowledge  of  the  subject 
derived  either  from  the  Phoenicians  or  the  Egyptians. 
Ewald  places  his  epoch  with  that  of  the  early  Jewish 
kings.  According  to  this  table  the  Egyptians  were  de¬ 
scended  from  Ham,  the  son  of  Noah,  and  were  con¬ 
sequently  of  the  same  original  stock  with  the  Japhetic 
and  Semitic  nations.  They  were  not  negroes,  though 
their  skin  was  black,  or  at  least  dark.*f*  According  to 
Herodotus  they  came  from  the  heart  of  Africa ;  accord¬ 
ing  to  Genesis  (chap,  x.)  from  Asia.  Which  is  the  cor¬ 
rect  view  ? 

The  Egyptians  themselves  recognized  no  relationship 
with  the  negroes,  who  only  appear  on  the  monuments  as 
captives  or  slaves. 

History,  therefore,  helps  us  little  in  this  question  of 
race.  How  is  it  with  Comparative  Philology  and  Com¬ 
parative  Anatomy  ? 

The  Coptic  language  is  an  idiom  of  the  old  Egyptian 
tongue,  which  seems  to  belong  to  no  known  linguistic 
group.  It  is  related  to  other  African  languages  only 
through  the  lexicon,  and  similarly  with  the  Indo-Euro¬ 
pean.  Some  traces  of  grammatic  likeness  to  the  Semitic 
may  be  found  in  it  ;  yet  the  view  of  Bunsen  and 
Schwartz,  that  in  very  ancient  times  it  arose  from  the 

*  “  iEgypten  und  die  Bucher  Mosis,  von  Dr.  Georg  Ebers.  Leipzig, 
3868.”  “Bunsen,  Bibel-Werk,”  Erster  Theil,  p.  63. 

+  iEscbylus  calls  the  Egyptian  sailors  ne\ayx<-V-os,  Lucian  calls  a  young 
Egyptian  “  bltick- skinned,”  but  Ammianus  Marcellinus  says,  “iEgyptii 
plerique  subfusculi  sunt  et  atrati.” 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


237 


union  of  Semitic  and  Indo-European  languages,  remains 
only  a  hypothesis.* * * §  Merx  (in  Schenkel’s  Bibel-Lexicon) 
says  this  view  “  rests  upon  a  wish  formed  in  the  interest  of 
the  Philosophy  of  History  ;  and  the  belief  of  a  connection 
between  these  tongues  is  not  justified  by  any  scientific 
study  of  philology.  No  such  ethnological  affinity  can  be 
granted,  —  a  proof  of  which  is  that  all  facts  in  its  favor 
are  derived  from  common  roots,  none  from  common 
grammar.”  Benfey,  however,  assumed  two  great  branches 
of  Semitic  nationalities,  one  flowing  into  Africa,  the  other 
into  Western  Asia.f.  Ebers^:  gives  some  striking  resem¬ 
blances  between  Egyptian  and  Chaldaic  words,  and  says 
lie  possesses  more  than  three  hundred  examples  of  this 
kind  ;  and  in  Bunsen’s  fifth  volume  are  comparative  tables 
which  give  as  their  result  that  a  third  part  of  the  old 
Egyptian  words  in  Coptic  literature  are  Semitic,  and  a 
tenth  part  Indo-European.  If  these  statements  are  con¬ 
firmed,  they  may  indicate  some  close  early  relations  be¬ 
tween  these  races. 

The  anatomy  of  the  mummies  seems  to  show  a  wide 
departure  from  negro  characteristics.  The  skull,  chin, 
forehead,  bony  system,  facial  angle,  hair,  limbs,  are  all 
different.  The  chief  resemblances  are  in  the  flat  nose, 
and  form  of  the  backbone.§  Scientific  ethnologists  have 
therefore  usually  decided  that  the  old  Egyptians  were  an 

*  “iEgypten  und  die  Bucher  Mosis,  von  Ebers,  Yol.  I.  p.  48.” 

+  “  Th.  Benfey,  Ueber  das  verhaltniss  der  agyptischen  Sprache  zum 
semitischen  Sprachstamme,  1844.” 

t  iEgypten,  &c. 

§  “The  skulls  of  the  mummies  agree  with  history  in  proving  that 
Egypt  was  peopled  with  a  variety  of  tribes  ;  and  physiologists,  when 
speaking  more  exactly,  have  divided  them  into  three  classes.  The  first 
is  the  Egyptian  proper,  whose  skull  is  shaped  like  the  heads  of  the 
ancient  Theban  statues  and  the  modern  Nubians.  The  second  is  a  race 
of  men  more  like  the  Europeans,  and  these  mummies  ' become  more  com¬ 
mon  as  we  approach  the  Delta.  These  are  perhaps  the  same  as  the 
modern  Copts.  The  third  is  of  an  Arab  race,  and  are  like  the  heads  of 
the  laborers  in  the  pictures.”  —  Sharpe,  Hist,  of  Egypt,  I.  3.  He  refers 
to  Morton’s  Crania  /Egyptiaca  for  his  authority. 

Prichard  (Nat.  Hist,  of  Man  and  Researches,  &e.),  after  a  full  exam¬ 
ination  of  the  question  concerning  the  ethnical  relations  of  the  Egyptians, 
and  of  Morton’s  craniological  researches,  concludes  in  favor  of  an  Asiatic 
origin  of  the  Egyptians,  connected  with  an  amalgamation  with  the  Afri¬ 
can  autocthones. 


238 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Asiatic  people  who  had  become  partially  amalgamated 
with  the  surrounding  African  tribes.  Max  Duncker 
comes  to  this  conclusion,*  and  says  that  the  Berber 
languages  are  the  existing  representatives  of  the  old 
Egyptian.  This  is  certainly  true  as  concerns  the  Copts, 
whose  very  name  is  almost  identical  with  the  word 
“  Gupti,”  the  old  name  from  which  the  Greeks  formed 
the  term  ACgypti.f  Alfred  Maury  (Revue  d.  D.  Mondes, 
September,  1867)  says  that,  “  according  to  all  appearances, 
Egypt  was  peopled  from  Asia  by  that  Hamitic  race  which 
comprised  the  tribes  of  Palestine,  Arabia,  and  Ethiopia. 
Its  ancient  civilization  was,  consequently,  the  sister  of 
that  which  built  Babylon  and  Nineveh.  In  the  valley  of 
the  Nile,  as  in  those  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  re¬ 
ligion  gave  the  motive  to  civilization,  and  in  all  the  three 
nations  there  was  a  priesthood  in  close  alliance  with  an 
absolute  monarchy.”  M.  de  Rougd  is  of  the  same  opin¬ 
ion.  In  his  examination  of  the  monuments  of  the  oldest 
dynasties,  he  finds  the  name  given  to  the  Egyptians  by 
themselves  to  be  merely  “  the  Men  ”  (Rut),  —  a  word 
which  by  the  usual  interchange  of  R  with  L,  and  of  T 
with  D,  is  identical  with  the  Hebrew  Lud  (plural  Ludim), 
whom  the  Book  of  Genesis  declares  to  have  been  a  son 
of  Misraim.  This  term  was  applied  by  the  Israelites  to 
all  the  races  on  the  southeast  shore  of  the  Mediter¬ 
ranean.  It  is,  therefore,  believed  by  M.  de  Roug6  that  the 
Egyptians  were  of  the  same  family  with  these  Asiatic 
tribes  on  the  shores  of  Syria.  Here,  then,  as  in  so  many 
other  cases,  a  new  civilization  may  have  come  from  the 
union  of  two  different  races,  —  one  Asiatic,  the  other 
African.  Asia  furnished  the  brain,  Africa  the  fire,  and 
from  the  immense  vital  force  of  the  latter  and  the  intel¬ 
lectual  vigor  of  the  former  sprang  that  wonderful  civiliza¬ 
tion  which  illuminated  the  world  during  at  least  five 
thousand  years. 

*  Dieser  Volkerschaften  gehorten  der  kaukasischen  Race  an  ;  iliro 
Sprachen  waren  dem  Semitischen  am  nachsten  Yerwandt.”  G.  des  A. 

I.  11. 

+  Brugsch  derives  it  from  Ki-Ptah  =  worshippers  of  Ptah. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


239 


§  6.  The  Three  Orders  of  Gods. 

The  Egyptian  theology,  or  doctrine  of  the  gods,  was 
of  two  kinds,  —  esoteric  and  exoteric,  that  is,  an  interior 
theology  for  the  initiated,  and  an'  exterior  theology  for 
the  uninitiated.  The  exterior  theology,  which  was  for  the 
whole  people,  consisted  of  the  mythological  accounts  of 
Isis  and  Osiris,  the  judgments  of  the  dead,  the  transmi¬ 
gration  of  the  soul,  and  all  matters  connected  with  the 
ceremonial  worship  of  the  gods.  But  the  interior,  hid¬ 
den  theology  is  supposed  to  have  related  to  the  unity 
and  spirituality  of  the  Deity. 

Herodotus  informs  us  that  the  gods  of  the  Egyptians 
were  in  three  orders ;  and  Bunsen  believes  that  he  has 
succeeded  in  restoring  them  from  the  monuments.  There 
are  eight  gods  of  the  first  order,  twelve  gods  of  the  second 
order,  and  seven  gods  of  the  third  order.  The  gods  of  the 
third  order  are  those  of  the  popular  worship,  but  those  of 
the  first  seem  to  be  of  a  higher  and  more  spiritual  class. 
The  third  class  of  gods  were  representative  of  the  elements 
of  nature,  the  sun,  fire,  water,  earth,  air.  But  the  gods 
of  the  first  order  were  the  gods  of  the  priesthood,  under¬ 
stood  by  them  alone,  and  expressing  ideas  which  they 
shrank  from  communicating  to  the  people.  The  spiritual 
and  ideal  part  of  their  religion  the  priests  kept  to  them¬ 
selves  as  something  which  the  people  were  incapable  of 
understanding.  The  first  eight  gods  seem  to  have  been  a 
representation  of  a  process  of  divine  development  or  ema¬ 
nation,  and  constituted  a  transition  from  the  absolute 
spiritualism  of  the  Hindoos  to  the  religion  of  nature  and 
humanity  in  the  West.  The  Hindoo  gods  were  emana¬ 
tions  of  spirit:  the  gods  of  Greece  are  idealizations  of 
Nature.  But  the  Egyptian  gods  represent  spirit  passing 
into  matter  and  form. 

Accordingly,  if  we  examine  in  detail  the  gods  of  the 
first  order,  who  are  eight,  we  find  them  to  possess  the 
general  principle  of  self-revelation,  and  to  constitute,  taken 
together,  a  process  of  divine  development.  These  eight,  ac¬ 
cording  to  Bunsen,  are  Amn,  or  Ammon  ;  Khem,  or  Chem- 
mis ;  Mut,  the  Mother  Goddess ;  Num,  or  Kneph ;  Seti, 


240 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


or  Sate ;  Phtah,  tlie  Artist  God ;  Net,  or  Neith,  the  Goddess 
of  Sais ;  and  Ba,  the  Sun,  the  God  of  Heliopolis.  But 
according  to  Wilkinson  they  stand  in  a  little  different 
order :  1.  Neph,  or  Kneph  ;  2.  Amun,  or  Ammon ;  3.  Pthah; 
4.  Khem ;  5.  Sate ;  6.  Maut,  or  Mut ;  7.  Pasht,  or  Diana ; 
and  8.  Neith,  or  Minerva,  in  which  list  Pasht,  the  Goddess 
of  Bubastis,  is  promoted  out  of  the  second  order  and  takes 
the  place  of  Ba,  the  Sun,  who  is  degraded. 

Supposing  these  lists  to  he  substantially  correct,  we 
have,  as  th£  root  of  the  series,  Ammon,  the  Concealed  God, 
or  Absolute  Spirit.  His  titles  indicate  this  dignity.  The 
Greeks  recognized  him  as  corresponding  to  their  Zeus.  He 
is  styled  King  of  the  Gods,  the  Euler,  the  Lord  of  Heaven, 
the  Lord  of  the  Thrones,  the  Horus  or  God  of  the  Two 
Egypts.  Thebes  was  his  city.  According  to  Manetho,  his 
name  means  concealment ;  and  the  root  “  Amn  ”  also  means 
to  veil  or  conceal.  His  original  name  was  Amn ;  thus  it 
stands  in  the  rings  of  the  twelfth  dynasty.  But  after  the 
eighteenth  dynasty  it  is  Amn-Ba,  meaning  the  Sun. 
“  Incontestably,”  says  Bunsen,  “  he  stands  in  Egypt  as 
the  head  of  the  great  cosmogonic  development.” 

Next  comes  Knepli,  or  God  as  Spirit, —  the  Spirit  of 
God,  often  confounded  with  Amn,  also  called  Cnubis  and 
Num.  Both  Plutarch  and  Diodorus  tell  us  that  his  name 
signifies  Spirit,  the  Num  having  an  evident  relation  with 
the  Greek  npev^a,  and  the  Coptic  word  “Nef,”  meaning  also 
to  blow.  So  too  the  Arabic  “Nef”  means  breath,  the  He¬ 
brew  “  Nuf,”  to  flow,  and  the  Greek  nvea>,  to  breathe.  At 
Esneh  he  is  called  the  Breath  of  those  in  the  Firmament ; 
at  Elephantina,  Lord  of  the  Inundations.  He  wears  the 
ram’s  head  with  double  horns  (by  mistake  of  the  Greeks 
attributed  to  Ammon),  and  his  worship  was  universal  in 
Ethiopia.  The  sheep  are  sacred  to  him,  of  which  there 
wTere  large  flocks  in  the  Thebaid,  kept  for  their  wool. 
And  the  serpent  or  asp,  a  sign  of  kingly  dominion,  —  hence 
called  basilisk,  —  is  sacred  to  Kneph.  As  Creator,  he  ap¬ 
pears  under  the  figure  of  a  potter  with  a  wheel.  In  Philse 
he  is  so  represented,  forming  on  his  wheel  a  figure  of  Osiris, 
with  the  inscription,  “  Num,  who  forms  on  his  wheel  the 
Divine  Limbs  of  Osiris.”  He  is  also  called  the  Sculptor 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


241 


of  all  men,  also  the  god  who  made  the  sun  and  moon  to 
revolve.  Porphyry  says  that  Pthah  sprang  from  an  egg 
which  came  from  the  mouth  of  Kneph,  in  which  he  is 
supported  by  high  monumental  authority. 

The  result  of  this  seems  to  be- that  Kneph  represents 
the  absolute  Being  as  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of  God  moving  on 
the  face  of  the  waters,  —  a  moving  spirit  pervading  the 
formless  chaos  of  matter. 

Perhaps  the  next  god  in  the  series  is  Pthah,  by  the 
Greeks  called  Hephaestus,  or  Vulcan,  representing  forma¬ 
tion,  creation  by  the  truth,  stability;  called  in  the  in¬ 
scriptions,  Lord  of  Truth,  Lord  of  the  Beautiful  Pace, 
Father  of  the  Beginnings,  moving  the  Egg  of  the  Sun  and 
Moon.  With  Horapollo  and  Plutarch,  we  may  consider 
the  Scarabeus,  or  Beetle,  which  is  his  sign,  as  an  emblem 
of  the  world  and  its  creation.  An  inscription  calls  him 
Creator  of  all  things  in  the  world.  Iamblicus  says,  “  The 
God  who  creates  with  truth  is  Pthah.”  He  was  also  con¬ 
nected  witli  the  sun,  as  having  thirty  fingers,  —  the  num¬ 
ber  of  days  in  a  month.  He  is  represented  sometimes  as 
a  deformed  dwarf. 

The  next  god  in  the  series  is  Khem,  the  Greek  Pan,  — 
the  principle  of  generation,  sometimes  holding  the  plough¬ 
share. 

Then  come  the  feminine  principles  corresponding  with 
these  three  latter  gods.  Anrun  has  naturally  no  compan¬ 
ion.  Mut,  the  mother,  is  the  consort  of  Khem  the  father. 
Seti,  —  the  Eay  or  Arrow,  —  a  female  figure,  with  the 
horns  of  a  cow,  is  the  companion  of  Kneph.  And.  Keith, 
or  Net,  the  goddess  of  Sais,  belongs  to  Pthah.  The  Greek 
Minerva  Athene  is  thought  to  be  derived  from  Neith  by 
an  inversion  of  the  letters,* — the  Greeks  writing  from 
left  to  right  and  the  Egyptians  from  right  to  left..  Her 
name  means,  “  I  came  from  myself.”  Clemens  says  that 
her  great  shrine  at  Sais  has  an  open  roof  with  the  inscrip¬ 
tion,  “  I  am  all  that  was  and  is  and  is  to  be,,  and  no  mor¬ 
tal  has  lifted  my  garment,  and  the  fruit  I  bore  is  Helios.” 
This  would  seem  to  identify  her  with  Nature; 

*  Plato,  Timpeus.  Herod.  II.  59.  Gutschmidt  and  others  denys  this 
etymologic  relation  of  Neith  to  Athene. 

11 


p 


242 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


For  the  eighth  god  of  the  first  order  we  may  take 
either  Helios  or  Ea  or  Phra,  the  Sun-God ;  from  whence 
came  the  name  of  the  Pharaohs,  or  we  may  take  Pasht, 
Bubastis,  the  equivalent  of  the  Greek  Diana.  On  some 
accounts  it  would  seem  that  Ea  was  the  true  termination 
of  this  cycle.  We  should  then  have,  proceeding  from 
the  hidden  abyss  of  pure  Spirit,  first  a  breathing  forth, 
or  spirit  in  motion ;  then  creation,  by  the  word  of  truth ; 
then  generation,  giving  life  and  growth ;  and  then  the 
female  qualities  of  production,  wisdom,  and  light,  com¬ 
pleted  by  the  Sun-God,  last  of  the  series.  Amn,  or  Am¬ 
mon,  the  Concealed  God,  is  the  root,  then  the  creative 
power  in  Kneph,  then  the  generative  power  in  Kliem, 
the  Demiurgic  power  in  Ptah,  the  feminine  creative 
principle  of  Nature  in  Neith,  the  productive  principle  in 
Mut,  or  perhaps  the  nourishing  principle,  and  then  the 
living  stimulus  of  growth,  which  carries  all  forward  in  Ea. 

But  we  must  now  remember  that  two  races  meet  in 
Egypt,  —  an  Asiatic  race,  which  brings  the  ideas  of  the 
East;  and  an  Ethiopian,  inhabitants  of  the  land,  who 
were  already  there.  The  first  race  brought  the  spiritual 
ideas  which  were  embodied  in  the  higher  order  of  gods. 
The  Africans  were  filled  with  the  instinct  of  nature- 
worship.  These  two  tendencies  were  to  be  reconciled  in 
the  religion  of  Egypt.  The  first  order  of  gods  was 
for  the  initiated,  and  taught  them  the  unity,  spirituality, 
and  creative  power  of  God.*  The  third  order — the 
circle  of  Isis  and  Osiris  —  were  for  the  people,  and  were 

*  ‘  ‘  There  is  a  profound  consolation  hidden  in  the  old  Egyptian  inscribed 
rocks.  They  show  us  that  the  weird  figures,  half  man  and  half  beast, 
which  we  find  carved  and  painted  there,  were  not  the  true  gods  of  Egypt, 
hut  politico-religious  masks,  concealing  the  true  godhead.  These  rocks 
teach  that  the  real  object  of  worship  was  the  one  undivided  Being,  exist¬ 
ing  from  the  Beginning,  Creator  of  all  things,  revealing  himself  to  the 
illuminated  soul  as  the  Mosaic  “I  am  the  I  am.”  It  is  true  that  this 
pure  doctrine  was  taught  only  to  the  initiated,  and  the  stones  forbid  it  to 
be  published.  ‘  This  is  a  hidden  mystery  ;  tell  it  to  no  one  ;  let  it  be 
seen  by  no  eye,  heard  by  no  ear  :  only  thou  and  thy  teacher  shall  possess 
this  knowledge.’  ”  Brugsch,  Aus  dem  Orient,  p.  69. 

May  not  one  reason  for  concealing  this  doctrine  of  the  unity  and 
spirituality  of  God  have  been  the  stress  of  the  African  mind  to  variety 
and  bodily  form  ?  The  priests  feared  to  encounter  this  great  current  of 
sentiment  in  the  people,  and  so  outwardly  conformed  to  it. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


243 


representative  of  the  forms  and  forces  of  outward  nature. 
Between  the  two  come  the  second  series,  —  a  transition 
from  the  one  to  the  other,  —  children  of  the  higher  gods, 
parents  of  the  lower,  —  neither  so  abstract  as  the  one  nor 
so  concrete  as  the  other,  —  representing  neither  purely 
divine  qualities  on  the  one  side,  nor  merely  natural  forces 
on  the  other,  but  rather  the  faculties  and  powers  of  man. 
Most  of  this  series  were  therefore  adopted  by  the  Greeks, 
whose  religion  was  one  essentially  based  on  human 
nature,  and  whose  gods  were  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  ideal 
representations  of  human  qualities.  Hence  they  found 
in  Khunsu,  child  of  Ammon,  their  Hercules,  God  of 
Strength ;  in  Thotli,  child  of  Kneph,  they  found  Hermes, 
God  of  Knowledge ;  in  Pecht,  child  of  Ptliah,  they 
found  their  Artemis,  or  Diana,  the  Goddess  of  Birth,  pro¬ 
tector  of  women ;  in  Athor,  or  Hathor,  they  found  their 
Aphrodite,  Goddess  of  Love.  Seb  was  Chronos,  or  Time ; 
and  Nutpe  was  Bhea,  wife  of  Chronos. 

The  third  order  of  gods  are  the  children  of  the  second 
series,  and  are  manifestations  of  the  Divine  in  the  out¬ 
ward  universe.  But  though  standing  lowest  in  the  scale, 
they  were  the  most  popular  gods  of  the  Pantheon ;  had 
more  individuality  and  personal  character  than  the  others ; 
were  more  universally  worshipped  throughout  Egypt,  and 
that  from  the  oldest  times.  “The  Osiris  deities,”  says 
Herodotus,  “  are  the  only  gods  worshipped  throughout 
Egypt.”  “  They  stand  on  the  oldest  monuments,  are  the 
centre  of  all  Egyptian  worship,  and  are  perhaps  the  oldest 
original  objects  of  reverence,”  says  Bunsen.  How  can 
this  be  if  they  belong  to  a  lower  order  of  Deities,  and 
what  is  the  explanation  of  it  ?  There  is  another  historical 
fact  also  to  be  explained.  Down  to  the  time  of  Ramses, 
thirteen  hundred  years  before  Christ,  Typhon,  or  Seth,  the 
God  of  Destruction,  was  the  chief  of  this  third  order,  and 
the  most  venerated  of  all  the  gods.  After  that  time  a 
revolution  occurred  in  the  worship,  which  overthrew  Seth, 
and  his  name  was  chiselled  out  of  the  monuments,  and 
the  name  of  Amun  inserted  in  its  place.  This  was  the 
only  change  which  occurred  in  the  Egyptian  religion, 
so  far  as  we  know,  from  its  commencement  until  the 


244 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


time  of  tlie  Caesars*  An  explanation  of  both  these 
facts  may  be  given,  founded  on  the  supposed  amalgama¬ 
tion  in  Egypt  of  two  races  with  their  religions.  Suppos¬ 
ing  that  the  gods  of  the  higher  orders  represented  the 
religious  ideas  of  a  Semitic  or  Aryan  race  entering  Egypt 
from  Asia,  and  that  the  Osiris  group  were  the  gods  of 
the  African  nature-worship,  which  they  found  prevailing 
on  their  arrival,  it  is  quite  natural  that  the  priests  should 
in  their  classification  place  their  own  gods  highest,  while 
they  should  have  allowed  the  external  worship  to  go  on 
as  formerly,  at  least  for  a  time.  But,  after  a  time,  as  the 
tone  of  thought  became  more  elevated,  they  may  have 
succeeded  in  substituting  for  the  God  of  Terror  and 
Destruction  a  higher  conception  in  the  popular  worship. 

The  myth  of  Isis  and  Osiris,  preserved  for  us  by  Plu¬ 
tarch,  gives  the  most  light  in  relation  to  this  order  of 
deities. 

Seb  and  ISTutpe,  or  Nut,  called  by  the  Greeks  Chronos 
and  Rhea,  were  the  parents  of  this  group.  Seb  is  there¬ 
fore  Time,  and  Nut  is  Motion  or  perhaps  Space.  The 
Sun  pronounced  a  curse  on  them,  namely,  that  she  should 
not  be  delivered,  on  any  day  of  the  year.  This  perhaps 
implies  the  difficulty  of  the  thought  of  Creation.  But 
Hermes,  or  Wisdom,  who  loved  Rhea,  won,  at  dice,  of  the 
Moon,  five  days,  the  seventieth  part  of  all  her  illumi¬ 
nations,  which  he  added  to  the  three  hundred  and  sixty 
days,  or  twelve  months.  Here  we  have  a  hint  of  a  correc¬ 
tion  of  the  calendar,  the  necessity  of  which  awakened  a 
feeling  of  irregularity  in  the  processes  of  nature,  admit¬ 
ting  thereby  the  notion  of  change  and  a  new  creation. 
These  five  days  were  the  birthdays  of  the  gods.  On 
the  first  Osiris  is  born,  and  a  voice  was  heard  saying, 
“  The  Lord  of  all  things  is  now  born.”  On  the  sec¬ 
ond  day,  Arueris-Apollo,  or  the  elder  Horus ;  on  the 
third,  Typhon,  who  broke  through  a  hole  in  his  mother’s 
side  ;  on  the  fourth,  Isis  ;  and  on  the  fifth,  Nepthys- Venus, 
or  Victory.  Osiris  and  Arueris  are  children  of  the  Sun, 
Isis  of  Hermes,  Typhon  and  Nepthys  of  Saturn. 

Isis  became  the  wife  of  Osiris,  who  went  through  the 


*  So  says  Wilkinson. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


245 


world  taming  it  by  means  of  oratory,  poetry,  and  music. 
AVhen  lie  returned,  Typhon  took  seventy-two  men  and 
also  a  queen  of  Ethiopia,  and  made  an  ark  the  size  of 
Osiris’s  body,  and  at  a  feast  proposed  to  give  it  to  the  one 
whom  it  should  fit.  Osiris  got  into  it,  and  they  fastened 
down  the  lid  and  soldered  it  and  threw  it  into  the  Nile. 
Then  Isis  put  on  mourning  and  went  to  search  for  it,  and 
directed  her  inquiries  to  little  children,  who  were  hence 
held  by  the  Egyptians  to  have  the  faculty  of  divination. 
Then  she  found  Anubis,  child  of  Osiris,  by  Nepthys,  wife 
of  Typhon,  who  told  her  how  the  ark  was  entangled  in  a 
tree  which  grew  up  around  it  and  hid  it.  The  king  had 
made  of  this  tree  a  pillar  to  support  his  house.  Isis  sat 
down  weeping ;  the  women  of  the  queen  came  to  her,  she 
stroked  their  hair,  and  fragrance  passed  into  it.  She  was 
made  nurse  to  the  queen’s  child,  fed  him  with  her  finger, 
and  in  the  night-time,  by  means  of  a  lambent  flame, 
burned  away  his  impurities.  She  then  turned  herself 
into  a  swallow  and  flew  around  the  house,  bewailing  her 
fate.  The  queen  watched  her  operations,  and  being 
alarmed  cried  out,  and  so  robbed  her  child  of  immortality. 
Isis  then  begged  the  pillar,  took  it  down,  took  out  the 
chest,  and  cried  so  loud  that  the  younger  son  of  the  king 
died  of  fright.  She  then  took  the  ark  and  the  elder  son 
and  set  sail.  The  cold  air  of  the  river  chilled  her,  and 
she  became  angry  and  cursed  it,  and  so  dried  it  up.  She 
opened  the  chest,  put  her  cheek  to  that  of  Osiris  and  wept 
bitterly.  The  little  boy  came  and  peeped  in ;  she  gave 
him  a  terrible  look,  and  he#  died  of  fright.  Isis  then  came 
to  her  son  Horus,  who  was  at  nurse  at  Buto.  Typhon, 
hunting  by  moonlight,  saw  the  ark,  with  the  body  of  Osiris, 
which  he  tore  into  fourteen  parts  and  threw  them  about. 
Isis  went  to  look  for  them  in  a  boat  made  of  papyrus,  and 
buried  each  part  in  a  separate  place.  . 

After  this  the  soul  of  Osiris  returned  out  of  Hades  to 
train  up  his  son.  Then  came  a  battle  between  Horus  and 
Typhon,  in  which  Typhon  was  vanquished,  but  Isis  allowed 
liim  to  escape.  There  are  other  less  important  incidents 
in  the  story,  among  them  that  Isis  had  another  son  by  the 
soul  of  Osiris  after  his  death,  who  is  the  god  called  Har- 


246 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


pocrates,  represented  as  lame  and  with  his  finger  on  his 
mouth.* 

Plutarch  declares  that  this  story  is  symbolical,  and  men¬ 
tions  various  explanations  of  the  allegory.  He  rejects,  at 
once,  the  rationalistic  explanation,  which  turns  these  gods 
into  eminent  men,  —  sea-captains,  etc.  “  I  fear,”  says  he, 
“  this  would  be  to  stir  things  that  are  not  to  be  stirred, 
and  to  declare  war  (as  Simonides  says),  not  only  against 
length  of  time,  but  also  against  many  nations  and  families 
of  mankind,  whom  a  religious  reverence  towards  these 
gods  holds  fast  bound  like  men  astonished  and  amazed, 
and  would  be  no  other  than  going  about  to  remove  so 
great  and  venerable  names  from  heaven  to  earth,  and 
thereby  shaking  and  dissolving  that  worship  and  persua¬ 
sion  that  hath  entered  almost  all  men’s  constitutions  from 
their  very  birth,  and  opening  vast  doors  to  the  atheists’ 
faction,  who  convert  all  divine  matters  into  human.” 
"  Others,”  he  says,  “  consider  these  beings  as  demons  inter¬ 
mediate  between  gods  and  men.  And  Osiris  afterwards 
became  Serapis,  the  Pluto  of  the  under-world.” 

Other  explanations  of  the  myth  are  given  by  Plutarch. 
Pirst,  the  geographical  explanation.  According  to  this,  Os¬ 
iris  is  Water,  especially  the  Nile.  Isis  is  Earth,  especially 
the  land  of  Egypt  adjoining  the  Nile,  and  overflowed  by 
it.  Horus,  their  son,  is  the  Air,  especially  the  moist, 
mild  air  of  Egypt.  Typlion  is  Fire,  especially  the  sum¬ 
mer  heat  which  dries  up  the  Nile  and  parches  the  land. 
His  seventy-two  associates  are  the  seventy-two  days  of 
greatest  heat,  according  to  the  Egyptian  opinion.  Nep- 
thys,  his  wife,  sister  of  Isis,  is  the  Desert  outside  of  Egypt, 
but  which  in  a  higher  inundation  of  the  Nile  being  some¬ 
times  overflowed,  becomes  productive,  and  has  a  child  by 
Osiris,  named  Anubis.  When  Typhon  shuts  Osiris  into 
the  ark,  it  is  the  summer  heat  drying  up  the  Nile  and  con¬ 
fining  it  to  its  channel.  This  ark,  entangled  in  a  tree,  is 
where  the  Nile  divides  into  many  mouths  at  the  Delta 
and  is  overhung  by  the  wood.  Isis,  nursing  the  child  of 
the  king,  the  fragrance,  etc.,  represent  the  earth  nourishing 
plants  and  animals.  The  body  of  Osiris,  torn  by  Typhon 

*  The  finger  on  the  mouth  symbolizes,  not  silence,  but  childhood. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


247 


into  fourteen  parts,  signifies  either  the  division  of  the  Nile 
at  its  mouths  or  the  pools  of  water  left  after  the  drying  up 
of  the  inundation. 

There  is  so  much  in  this  account  which  accords  with 
the  facts,  that  there  can  he  no  doubt  of  its  correctness 
so  far  as  it  goes.  At  the  same  time  it  is  evidently 
an  incomplete  explanation.  The  story  means  this,  but 
something  more.  Beside  the  geographical  view,  Plu¬ 
tarch  therefore  adds  a  scientific  and  an  astronomical  ex¬ 
planation,  as  well  as  others  more  philosophical.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  these,  Osiris  is  in  general  the  productive,  the  crea¬ 
tive  power  in  nature ;  Isis,  the  female  property  of  nature, 
hence  called  by  Plato  the  nurse  ;  and  Typlion  the  destruc¬ 
tive  property  in  nature ;  while  Horus  is  the  mediator 
between  creation  and  destruction.  And  thus  we  have  the 
triad  of  Osiris,  Typhon,  and  Horus,  essentially  correspond¬ 
ing  to  the  Hindoo  triad,  Brahma,  Siva,  and  Vishnu,  and 
also  to  the  Persian  triad,  Ormazd,  Ahriman,  and  Mithra. 
And  so  this  myth  will  express  the  Egyptian  view  of  the 
conflict  of  good  and  evil  in  the  natural  world. 

But  it  seems  very  likely  that  it  was  the  object  of  the 
priests  to  elevate  this  Osiris  worship  to  a  still  higher 
meaning,  making  it  an  allegory  of  the  struggles,  sorrows, 
and  self-recovery  of  the  human  soul.  Every  human  soul 
after  death  took  the  name  and  symbols  of  Osiris,  and  then 
went  into  the  under-world  to  be  judged  by  him.  Con¬ 
nected  with  this  was  the  doctrine  of  transmigration,  or  the 
passage  of  the  soul  through  various  bodies,  —  a  doctrine 
brought  out  of  Egypt  by  Pythagoras.  These  higher  doc¬ 
trines  were  taught  in  the  mysteries.  “  I  know  them,”  says 
Herodotus,  “but  must  not  tell  them.”  Iamblicus  pro¬ 
fesses  to  explain  them  in  his  work  on  the  Mysteries. 
But  it  is  not  easy  to  say  how  much  of  his  own  Platonism 
he  has  mingled  therewith.  According  to  him,  they  taught 
in  the  mysteries  that  before  all  things  was  one  God 
immovable  in  the  solitude  of  unity.  The  One  was  to  be 
venerated  in  silence.  Then  Emeph,  or  Neph,  was  god  in 
his  self-consciousness.  After  this  m  Amun,  his  intellect 
became  truth,  shedding  light.  Truth  working  by  art  is 
Pthah,  and  art  producing  good  is  Osiris. 


248 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Another  remarkable  fact  must  be  at  least  alluded  to. 
Bunsen  says,  that,  according  to  the  whole  testimony  of  the 
monuments,  Isis  and  Osiris  not  only  have  their  roots 
in  the  second  order,  but  are  also  themselves  the  first  and 
the  second  order.  Isis,  Osiris,  and  Horus  comprise  all 
Egyptian  mythology,  with  the  exception  of  Amun  and 
Neph.  Of  this  fact  I  have  seen  no  explanation  and 
know  of  none,  unless  it  be  a  sign  of  the  purpose  of  the 
priests  to  unite  the  two  systems  of  spiritualism  and 
nature- worship  into  one,  and  to  elevate  and  spiritualize 
the  lower  order  of  gods. 

One  reason  for  thinking  that  the  religious  system  of  the 
priests  was  a  compromise  between  several  different  original 
tendencies  is  to  be  found  in  the  local  worship  of  special 
deities  in  various  places.  In  Lower  Egypt  the  highest 
god  was  Pthah,  whom  the  Greeks  identified  with  Vulcan  ; 
the  god  of  fire  or  heat,  father  of  the  sun.  He  was  in  this 
region  the  chief  god,  corresponding  to  Ammon  in  Upper 
Egypt.  Manetho  says  that  Pthah  reigned  nine  thousand 
years  before  the  other  gods,  —  which  must  mean  that  this 
was  by  far  the  oldest  worship  in  Egypt.  As  Ammon  is 
the  head  of  a  cosmogony  which  proceeds  according  to 
emanation  from  spirit  down  to  matter,  so  Pthah  is  at 
the  beginning  of  a  cosmogony  which  ascends  by  a  process 
of  evolution  from  matter  working  up  to  spirit.  For  from 
Pthah  (heat)  comes  light,  from  light  proceeds  life,  from 
life  arise  gods,  men,  plants,  animals,  and  all  organic  exist¬ 
ence.  The  inscriptions  call  Pthah,  “  Father  of  the  Father 
of  the  Gods,”  “  King  of  both  Worlds,”  the  “  God  of  all 
Beginnings,”  the  “  Former  of  Things.”  The  egg  is  one  of 
his  symbols,  as  containing  a  germ  of  life.  The  scarabseus, 
or  beetle,  which  rolls  its  ball  of  earth,  supposed  to  con¬ 
tain  its  egg,  is  dedicated  to  Pthah.  His  sacred  city  was 
Memphis,  in  Lower  Egypt.  His  son,  Ra,  the  Sun-God, 
had  his  temple  at  On,  near  by,  which  the  Greeks  called 
Heliopolis,  or  City  of  the  Sun.  The  cat  is  sacred  to  Ra. 
As  Pthah  is  the  god  of  all  beginnings  in  Lower  Egypt,  so 
Ra  is  the  vitalizing  god,  the  active  ruler  of  the  world,  hold¬ 
ing  a  sceptre  in  one  hand  and  the  sign  of  life  in  the  other. 

The  goddesses  of  Lower  Egypt  were  Keith  at  Sais, 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


249 


Leto,  the  goddess  whose  temple  was  at  Buto,  and  Pacht 
at  Babastis.  In  Upper  Egypt,  as  we  have  seen,  the  chief 
deity  was  Amun,  or  Ammon,  the  Concealed  God,  and 
Kneph,  or  Knubis.  With  them  belonged  the  goddess 
Mut  *  (the  mother)  and  Khonso. '  The  two  oldest  gods 
were  Mentu,  the  rising  sun,  and  Atmu,  the  setting  sun. 

We  therefore  find  traces  of  the  same  course  of  religious 
thought  in  Egypt  as  we  shall  afterward  find  in  Greece. 
The  earlier  worship  is  of  local  deities,  who  are  afterwards 
united  in  a  Pantheon.  As  Zeus  was  at  first  worshipped 
in  Dodona  and  Arcadia,  Apollo  in  Crete  and  Delos, 
Aphrodite  in  Cyprus,  Athene  at  Athens,  and  afterward 
these  tribal  and  provincial  deities  were  united  in  one 
company  as  the  twelve  gods  of  Olympus,  so  in  Egypt 
the  various  early  theologies  were  united  in  the  three 
orders,  of  which  Ammon  was  made  the  head.  But,  in 
both  countries,  each  city  and  province  persevered  in 
the  worship  of  its  particular  deity.  As  Athene  con¬ 
tinued  to  be  the  protector  of  Athens,  and  Aphrodite  of 
Cyprus,  so,  in  Egypt,  Set  continued  to  be  the  god  of 
Ombos,  Leto  of  Buto,  Horus  of  Edfu,  Khem  of  Coptos. 

Before  concluding  this  section,  we  must  say  a  word  of 
the  practical  morality  connected  with  this  theology.  We 
have  seen,  above,  the  stress  laid  on  works  of  justice  and 
mercy.  There  is  a  papyrus  in  the  Imperial  library  at 
Paris,  which  M.  Chabas  considers  the  oldest  book  in  the 
world.  It  is  an  autograph  manuscript  written  B.  c.  2200, 
or  four  thousand  years  ago,  by  one  who  calls  himself  the 
son  of  a  king.  It  contains  practical  philosophy  like  that 
of  Solomon  in  his  proverbs.  It  glorifies,  like  the  Proverbs, 
wisdom.  It  says  that  “  man’s  heart'  rules  the  man,”  that 
“  the  bad  man’s  life  is  what  the  wise  know  to  be  death,” 
that  “  what  we  say  in  secret  is  known  to  him  wdio 
made  our  interior  nature,”  that  “he  who  made  us  is 
present  with  us  though  we  are  alone.” 

Is  not  the  human  race  one,  when  this  Egyptian  four 
thousand  years  ago,  talks  of  life  as  Solomon  spoke  one 
thousand  years  after,  in  Judaea ;  and  as  Benjamin  Eranklin 
spoke,  three  thousand  years  after  Solomon,  in  America  ? 

i 

*  The  name  “Mut”  was  also  given  to  Neith,  Pacht,  and  Isis. 


250 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


§  7.  Influence  of  Egypt  on  Judaism  and  Christianity . 

How  mucli  of  the  doctrine  and  ritual  of  Egypt  were  im¬ 
ported  into  Judaism  by  Moses  is  a  question  by  no  means 
easy  to  settle.  Of  Egyptian  theology  proper,  or  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  the  gods,  we  find  no  trace  in  the  Pentateuch. 
Instead  of  the  three  orders  of  deities  we  have  Jehovah; 
instead  of  the  images  and  pictures  of  the  gods,  we  have 
a  rigorous  prohibition  of  idolatry  ;  instead  of  Osiris  and 
Isis,  we  have  a  Deity  above  all  worlds  and  behind  all 
time,  with  no  history,  no  adventures,  no  earthly  life.  But 
it  is  perhaps  more  strange  not  to  find  any  trace  of  the 
doctrine  of  a  future  life  in  Mosaism,  when  this  was  so 
prominent  among  the  Egyptians.  Moses  gives  no  account 
of  the  judgment  of  souls  after  death  ;  he  tells  nothing  of 
the  long  journey  and  multiform  experiences  of  the  next 
life  according  to  the  Egyptians,  nothing  of  a  future  resur¬ 
rection  and  return  to  the  body.  His  severe  monotheism 
was  very  different  from  the  minute  characterization  of  gods 
in  the  Egyptian  Pantheon.  The  personal  character  of 
Jehovah,  with  its  awful  authority,  its  stern  retribution 
and  impartial  justice,  was  quite  another  thing  from  the 
symbolic  ideal  type  of  the  gods  of  Egypt.  Nothing  of 
the  popular  myth  of  Osiris,  Isis,  Horus,  and  Typhon  is 
found  in  the  Pentateuch ,  nothing  of  the  transmigration 
of  souls ,  nothing  of  the  worship  of  animals ;  nothing  of 
the  future  life  and  judgment  to  come ;  nothing  of  the 
embalming  of  bodies  and  ornamenting  of  tombs.  The 
cherubim  among  the  Jews  may  resemble  the  Egyptian 
Sphinx ;  the  priests’  dress  in  both  are  of  white  linen ; 
the  Urim  and  Thummim,  symbolic  jewels  of  the  priests, 
are  in  both ;  a  quasi  hereditary  priesthood  is  in  each ; 
and  both  have  a  temple  worship.  But  here  the  parallels 
cease.  Moses  left  behind  Egyptian  theology,  and  took 
only  some  hints  for  his  ritual  from  the  Nile. 

There  may  perhaps  be  a  single  exception  to  this  state¬ 
ment.  According  to  Brugsch  *  and  other  writers,  the 
Papyrus  buried  with  the  mummy  contained  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  the  Divine  unity.  The  name  of  God  was  not 


*  Brugscli,  Aus  dem  Orient,  p.  48. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


251 


given,  but  instead  the  words  Nuk  pu  Nuk,  "  I  am  the 
I  am,”  corresponding  to  the  name  given  in  Exodus  iii.  14, 
Jahveh  (in  a  corrupt  form  Jehovah).  This  name,  Jahveh, 
has  the  same  meaning  with  the  Egyptian  Nuk  pu  Nuk, 
“  I  am  the  I  am,”  At  least  so  say  Egyptologists.  If  this 
is  so,  the  coincidence  is  certainly  very  striking. 

That  some  of  the  ritualism  to  which  the  Jews  were 
accustomed  in  Egypt  should  have  been  imported  into  their 
new  ceremonial,  is  quite  in  accordance  with  human  nature. 
Christianity,  also,  has  taken  up  many  of  the  customs  of 
heathenism.*  The  rite  of  circumcision  was  probably  adopt¬ 
ed  by  the  J ews  from  the  Egyptians,  who  received  it  from 
the  natives  of  Africa.  Livingstone  has  found  it  among 
the  tribes  south  of  the  Zambesi,  and  thinks  this  custom 
there  cannot  be  traced  to  any  Mohammedan  source. 
Prichard  believes  it,  in  Egypt,  to  have  been  a  relic  of  an¬ 
cient  African  customs.  It  still  exists  in  Ethiopia  and 
Abyssinia.  In  Egypt  it  existed  far  earlier  than  the 
time  of  Abraham,  as  appears  by  ancient  mummies.  Wil¬ 
kinson  affirms  it  to  have  been  “  as  early  as  the  fourth 
dynasty,  and  probably  earlier,  long  before  the  time  of 
Abraham.”  Herodotus  tells  us  that  the  custom  existed 
from  the  earliest  times  among  the  Egyptians  and  Ethio¬ 
pians,  and  was  adopted  from  them  by  the  Syrians  of 
Palestine.  Those  who  regard  this  rite  as  instituted  by  a 
Divine  command  may  still  believe  that  it  already  existed 
among  the  Jews,  just  as  baptism  existed  among  them  be¬ 
fore  Jesus  commanded  his  disciples  to  baptize.  Both  in 
Egypt  and  among  the  Jews  it  was  connected  with  a  feel¬ 
ing  of  superiority.  The  circumcised  were  distinguished 
from  others  by  a  higher  religious  position.  It  is  difficult 
to  trace  the  origin  of  sentiments  so  alien  to  our  own  ways 
of  thought ;  but  the  hygienic  explanation  seems  hardly 
adequate.  It  may  have  been  a  sign  of  the  devotion  of 
the  generative  power  to  the  service  of  God,  and  have  been 
the  first  step  out  of  the  untamed  license  of  the  passions, 
among  the  Africans. 

*  See  Merivale,  Conversion  of  the  Northern  Nations,  p.  187,  note, 
where  he  gives  examples  of  “the  inveterate  lingering  of  Pagan  usages 
among  the  nominally  converted.”  But  many  of  these  were  sanctioned 
"by  the  Catholic  Church. 


252 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


It  has  been  supposed  that  the  figure  of  the  Cherubim 
among  the  Jews  was  derived  from  that  of  the  Sphinx. 
There  were  three  kinds  of  Sphinxes  in  Egypt,  —  the  anclro- 
sphinx,  with  the  head  of  a  man  and  the  body  of  a  lion ; 
the  crio-sphinx,  with  the  head  of  a  ram  and  the  body  of  a 
lion  ;  and  the  liieraco-spliinx ,  with  the  head  of  a  hawk  and 
a  lion’s  body.  The  first  was  a  symbol  of  the  union  of 
wisdom  and  strength.  The  Sphinx  was  the  solemn  sen¬ 
tinel,  placed  to  watch  the  temple  and  the  tomb,  as  the 
Cherubini  watched  the  gates  of  Paradise  after  the  expul¬ 
sion  of  Adam.  In  the  Cherubim  were  joined  portions  of 
the  figure  of  a  man  with  those  of  the  lion,  the  ox,  and  the 
eagle.  In  the  Temple  the  Cherubim  spread  their  wings 
above  the  ark ;  and  Wilkinson  gives  a  picture  from  the 
Egyptian  tombs  of  two  kneeling  figures  with  wings  spread 
above  the  scarabseus.  The  Persians  and  the  Greeks  had 
similar  symbolic  figures,  meant  to  represent  the  various 
powers  of  these  separate  creatures  combined  in  one  being ; 
but  the  Hebrew  figure  was  probably  imported  from  Egypt. 

The  Egyptians  had  in  their  temples  a  special  interior 
sanctuary,  more  holy  than  the  rest.  So  the  Jews  had 
their  Holy  of  Holies,  into  which  only  the  high-priest 
went,  separated  by  a  veil  from  the  other  parts  of  the 
Temple.  The  Jews  were  commanded  on  the  Day  of 
Atonement  to  provide  a  scapegoat,  to  carry  away  the  sins 
of  the  people,  and  the  higli-priest  was  to  lay  his  hands  on 
the  head  of  the  goat  and  confess  the  national  sins,  “  putting 
them  upon  the  head  of  the  goat  ”  (Lev.  xvi.  21,  22),  and  it 
was  said  that  “the  goat  shall  bear  upon  him  all  their 
iniquities  unto  a  land  not  inhabited.”  So,  among  the 
Egyptians,  whenever  a  victim  was  offered,  a  prayer  was 
repeated  over  its  head,  “  that  if  any  calamity  were  about 
to  befall  either  the  sacrifices  or  the  land  of  Egypt,  it 
might  be  averted  on  this  head.”  * 

Such  facts  as  these  make  it  highly  probable  that  Moses 
allowed  in  his  ritual  many  ceremonies  borrowed  from 
the  Egyptian  worship. 

That  Egyptian  Christianity  had  a  great  influence  on  the 
development  of  the  system  of  Christian  doctrine  is  not 

*  Kenrick,  I.  372  (American  edition). 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


253 


improbable.*  The  religion  of  ancient  Egypt  was  very 
tenacious  and  not  easily  effaced.  Successive  waves  of 
Syrian,  Persian,  Greek,  and  Eoman  conquest  rolled  over 
the  land,  scarcely  producing  any  change  in  her  religion 
or  worship.  Christianity  conquered  Egypt,  but  was  itself 
deeply  tinged  with  the  faith  of  the  conquered.  Many 
customs  found  in  Christendom  may  be  traced  back  to 
Egypt.  The  Egyptian  at  his  marriage  put  a  gold  ring  on 
his  wife’s  finger,  as  a  token  that  he  intrusted  her  with  all 
his  property,  just  as  in  the  Church  of  England  service  the 
bridegroom  does  the  same,  saying,  “  With  all  my  worldly 
goods  I  thee  endow.”  Clemens  tells  us  that  this  custom 
was  derived  by  the  Christians  from  the  Egyptians.  The 
priests  at  Philae  threw  a  piece  of  gold  into  the  Nile  once 
a  year,  as  the  Venetian  Doge  did  into  the  Adriatic.  The 
Eeast  of  Candles  at  Sais  is  still  marked  in  the  Christian 
calendar  as  Candlemas  Day.  The  Catholic  priest  shaves 
his  head  as  the  Egyptian  priest  did  before  him.  The 
Episcopal  minister’s  linen  surplice  for  reading  the  Liturgy 
is  taken  from  the  dress  of  obligation,  made  of  linen,  worn 
by  the  priest  in  Egypt.  Two  thousand  years  before  the 
Pope  assumed  to  hold  the  keys,  there  was  an  Egyptian 
priest  at  Thebes  with  the  title  of  “  Keeper  of  the  two 
doors  of  Heaven.”  f 

In  the  space  which  we  have  here  at  command  we  are 
unable  to  examine  the  question  of  doctrinal  influences 
from  Egypt  upon  orthodox  Christianity.  Four  doctrines, 
however,  are  stated  by  the  learned  Egyptologist,  Samuel 
Sharpe,  to  be  common  to  Egyptian  mythology  and  church 
orthodoxy.  They  are  these  :  — 

1.  That  the  creation  and  government  of  the  world  is 
not  the  work  of  one  simple  and  undivided  Being,  but  of 
one  God  made  up  of  several  persons.  This  is  the  doctrine 
of  plural  unity. 

2.  That  salvation  cannot  be  expected  from  the  justice 
or  mercy  of  the  Supreme  Judge,  unless  an  atoning  sacri¬ 
fice  is  made  to  him  by  a  divine  being. 

*  See  for  proofs,  Egyptian  Mythology  and  Egyptian  Christianity, 
"by  Samuel  Sharpe,  1863. 

t  Sharpe,  Egyptian  Mythology  and  Egyptian  Christianity. 


254 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


3.  That  among  the  persons  who  compose  the  godhead, 
one,  though  a  god,  could  yet  suffer  pain  and  be  put  to  death. 

4.  That  a  god  or  man,  or  a  being  half  god  and  half  a 
man  once  lived  on  earth,  born  of  an  earthly  mother  but 
without  an  earthly  father. 

The  gods  of  Egypt  generally  appear  in  triads,  and 
sometimes  as  three  gods  in  one.  The  triad  of  Thebes  was 
Amun-Ba,  Atlior,  and  Chonso,  —  or  father,  mother,  and 
son.  In  Nubia  it  was  Pthah,  Amun-Ba,  and  Horus-Ba. 
At  Phihe  it  was  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus.  Other  groups  were 
Isis,  Nephthys,  and  Horus ;  Isis,  Nephthys,  and  Osiris ; 
Osiris,  Athor,  and  Ba.  In  later  times  Horus  became  the 
supreme  being,  and  appears  united  with  Ba  and  Osiris  in 
one  figure,  holding  the  two  sceptres  of  Osiris,  and  having 
the  hawk’s  head  of  Horus  and  the  sun  of  Ba.  Eusebius 
says  of  this  god  that  he  declared  himself  to  be  Apollo, 
Lord,  and  Bacchus.  A  porcelain  idol  worn  as  a  charm 
combines  Pthah  the  Supreme  God  of  Nature,  with  Horus 
the  Son-God,  and  Kneph  the  Spirit-God.  The  body 
is  that  of  Pthah,  God  of  Nature,  with  the  hawk’s  wings 
of  Horus,  and  the  ram’s  head  of  Kneph.  It  is  curious 
that  Isis  the  mother,  with  Horus  the  child  in  her  arms, 
as  the  merciful  gods  who  would  save  their  worship¬ 
pers  from  the  vengeance  of  Osiris  the  stern  judge,  be¬ 
came  as  popular  a  worship  in  Egypt  in  the  time  of, 
Augustus,  as  that  of  the  Virgin  and  Child  is  in  Italy  to¬ 
day.  Juvenal  says  that  the  painters  of  Borne  almost 
lived  by  painting  the  goddess  Isis,  the  Madonna  of 
Egypt,  which  had  been  imported  into  Italy,  and  which 
was  very  popular  there. 

In  the  trial  of  the  soul  before  Osiris,  as  represented  on 
tablets  and  papyri,  are  seen  the  images  of  gods  inter¬ 
ceding  as  mediators  and  offering  sacrifices  on  its  behalf. 
There  are  four  of  these  mediatorial  gods,  and  there  is  a 
tablet  in  the  British  Museum  in  which  the  deceased  is 
shown  as  placing  the  gods  themselves  on  the  altar  as  his 
sin-offering,  and  pleading  their  merits.* 

The  death  of  Osiris,  the  supreme  god  of  all  Egypt,  was 
a  central  fact  in  this  mythology.  He  was  killed  by 

*  Sharpe,  as  above. 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


255 


Typhon,  the  Egyptian  Satan,  and  after  the  fragments  of 
his  body  had  been  collected  by  “the  sad  Isis,”  he  re¬ 
turned  to  life  as  king  of  the  dead  and  their  judge.* 

In  connection  with  these  facts  it  is  deserving  of  notice 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity  and  that  of  the  atonement 
began  to  take  shape  in  the  hands  of  the  Christian  theolo¬ 
gians  of  Egypt.  The  Trinity  and  its  symbols  were  already 
familiar  to  the  Egyptian  mind.  Plutarch  says  that  the 
Egyptians  worshipped  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus  under  the  . 
form  of  a  triangle.  He  adds  that  they  considered  every¬ 
thing  perfect  to  have  three  parts,  and  that  therefore  their 
good  god  made  himself  threefold,  while  their  god  of  evil 
remained  single.  Egypt,  which  had  exercised  so  power¬ 
ful  an  influence  on  the  old  religion  of  Pome,  was  destined 
also  greatly  to  influence  Christianity.  Alexandria  was  the 
head-quarters  of  learning  and  profound  religious  specula¬ 
tions  in  the  first  centuries.  Clemens,  Origen,  Dionysius, 
Athanasius,  were  eminent  teachers  in  that  school.  Its  doc¬ 
trines  were*!*  that  God  had  revealed  himself  to  all  nations 
by  his  Logos,  or  Word.  Christianity  is  its  highest  reve¬ 
lation.  The  common  Christian  lives  by  faith,  but  the 
more  advanced  believer  has  gnosis,  or  philosophic  insight 
of  Christianity  as  the  eternal  law  of  the  soul.  This  doc¬ 
trine  soon  substituted  speculation  in  place  of  the  simpli¬ 
city  of  early  Christianity.  The  influence  of  Alexandrian 
thought  was  increased  by  the  high  culture  which  prevailed 
there,  and  by  the  book-trade  of  this  Egyptian  city.  All  the 
oldest  manuscripts  of  the  Bible  now  extant  were  transcribed 
by  Alexandrian  penmen.  The  oldest  versions  were  made 
in  Alexandria.  Finally  the  intense  fervor  of  the  Egyptian 
mind  exercised  its  natural  influence  on  Christianity,  as  it 
did  on  Judaism  and  Heathenism.  The  Oriental  specu¬ 
lative  element  of  Egyptian  life  was  reinforced  by  the 

*  The  earliest  form  of  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  atonement  was 
that  the  Devil  killed  Jesus  in  ignorance  of  his  divine  nature.  The 
Devil  was  thus  deceived  into  doing  what  he  had  no  right  to  do,  conse¬ 
quently  he  was  obliged  to  pay  for  this  by  giving  up  the  souls  of  sinners 
to  which  he  had  a  right.  The  Osiris  myth  of  the  death  of  a  god,  which 
deeply  colored  the  mysteries  of  Adonis  and  Eleusis,  took  its  last  form  in 
this  peculiar  doctrine  of  atonement. 

+  Hase,  Kirchengeschichte,  §  87. 

f 


256 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


African  fire  ;  and  in  Christianity,  as  before  in  the  old 
religion,  we  find  both  working  together.  By  the  side  of 
the  Alexandrian  speculations  on  the  nature  of  God  and 
the  Trinity  appear  the  maniacal  devotion  of  the  monks 
of  the  Thebaid.  The  ardor  of  belief  which  had  over¬ 
come  even  the  tenacity  of  Judaism,  and  modified  it  into 
its  two  Egyptian  forms  of  the  speculations  of  Philo  and 
the  monastic  devotion  of  the  Therapeutic,  reappeared  in 
a  like  action  upon  Christian  belief  and  Christian  practice. 
How  large  a  part  of  our  present  Christianity  is  due  to 
these  two  influences  we  may  not  be  able  to  say.  But 
palpable  traces  of  Egyptian  speculation  appear  in  the 
Church  doctrines  of  the  Trinity  and  atonement,  and  the 
material  resurrection*  of  the  same  particles  which  con¬ 
stitute  the  earthly  body.  And  an  equally  evident  influence 
from  Egyptian  asceticism  is  found  in  the  long  history  of 
Christian  monasticism,  no  trace  of  which  appears  in  the 
Hew  Testament,  and  no  authority  for  which  can  be  found 
in  any  teaching  or  example  of  Christ.  The  mystical 
theology  and  mystical  devotion  of  Egypt  are  yet  at  work 
in  the  Christian  Church.  But  beside  the  doctrines  directly 
derived  from  Egypt,  there  has  probably  come  into  Chris¬ 
tianity  another  and  more  important  element  from  this 
source.  The  spirit  of  a  race,  a  nation,  a  civilization,  a  re¬ 
ligion  is  more  indestructible  than  its  forms,  more  per¬ 
vasive  than  its  opinions,  and  will  exercise  an  interior 
influence  long  after  its  outward  forms  have  disappeared. 
The  spirit  of  the  Egyptian  religion  was  reverence  for  the 
divine  mystery  of  organic  life,  the  worship  of  God  in 
creation,  of  unity  in  variety,  of  each  in  all.  Through  the 
Christian  Church  in  Egypt,  the  schools  of  Alexandria,  the 
monks  of  the  Thebaid,  these  elements  filtered  into  the  mind 
of  Christendom.  They  gave  a  materialistic  tone  to  the 
conceptions  of  the  early  Church,  concerning  God,  Satan, 
the  angels  and  devils,  Heaven,  Hell,  the  judgment,  and  the 
resurrection.  They  prevented  thereby  the  triumph  of  a 
misty  Oriental  spiritualism.  Too  gross  indeed  in  them¬ 
selves,  they  yet  were  better  than  the  Donatism  which 

*  Which  continues  in  Christianity,  in  spite  of  Paul’s  plain  statement, 
u  Thou  sowest  not  the  body  which  shall  be.” 


THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT. 


257  * 


would  have  turned  every  spiritual  fact  into  a  ghost  or  a 
shadow.  The  African  spirit,  in  the  fiery  words  of  a  Ter- 
tullian  and  an  Augustine,  ran  into  a  materialism,  which, 
opposed  to  the  opposite  extreme  of  idealism,  saved  to  the 
Church  its  healthy  realism. 

The  elaborate  work  of  Bunsen  on  “  Egypt’s  Place  in 
Universal  History”  does  not  aid  us  much  in  finding  the 
place  of  Egyptian  religion  in  universal  religion.  It 
was  strictly  an  ethnic  religion,  never  dreaming  of  ex¬ 
tending  itself  beyond  the  borders  of  the  Nile,  until  long 
after  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  the  Eomans.  Then,  in¬ 
deed,  Egyptian  temples  were  welcomed  by  the  large  hos¬ 
pitality  of  Rome,  and  any  traveller  may  see  the  ruins  of 
the  temple  of  Serapis  *  at  Pozzuoli,  and  that  of  Isis  at 
Pompeii.  The  gods  of  Greece,  as  we  have  seen,  took 
some  hints  from  Egypt,  but  the  Greek  Olympus,  with  its 
bright  forms,  was  very  different  from  the  mysterious  som¬ 
bre  worship  of  Egypt. 

The  worship  of  variety,  the  recognition  of  the  Divine 
in  nature,  the  sentiment  of  wonder  before  the  mystery  of 
the  world,  the  feeling  that  the  Deity  is  in  all  life,  in  all 
form,  in  all  change  as  well  as  in  what  is  permanent  and 
stable,  —  this  is  the  best  element  and  the  most  original  part 
of  the  Egyptian  religion.  So  much  we  can  learn  from 
it  positively  ;  and  negatively,  by  its  entire  dissolution,  its 
passing  away  forever,  leaving  no  knowledge  of  itself  behind, 
we  can  learn  how  empty  is  any  system  of  faith  which  is 
based  on  concealment  and  mystery.  All  the  vast  range 
of  Egyptian  wisdom  has  gone,  and  disappeared  from  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  for  it  was  only  a  religion  of  the 
priests,  who  kept  the  truth  to  themselves  and  did  not 
venture  to  communicate  it  to  the  people.  It  was  only 
priestcraft,  and  priestcraft,  like  all  other  craft,  carries  in 
itself  the  principle  of  death.  Only  truth  is  immortal,  — 
open,  frank,  manly  truth.  Confucius  was  true ;  he  did 
not  know  much,  but  he  told  all  he  knew.  Buddha  told 
all  he  knew.  Moses  told  all  he  heard.  So  they  and  their 

*  Serapis  was  not  a  god  of  the  Pharaonic  times,  hut  came  into  Egypt 
under  the  Ptolemies.  But  lately  M.  Mariette  has  shown  that  Serapis 
was  the  dead  bull  Apis  =  Osiris- Apis.  (’ Oaopairis .) 


258 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


works  continue,  being  built  on  faith  in  men.  But  the 
vast  fabric  of  Egyptian  wisdom,  —  its  deep  theologies,  its 
mysterious  symbolism,  its  majestic  art,  its  wonderful 
science,  —  remain  only  as  its  mummies  remain  and  as  its 
tombs  remain,  an  enigma  exciting  and  baffling  our  curios¬ 
ity,  but  not  adding  to  our  real  life. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


259 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


§  1.  The  Land  and  the  Race.  §  2.  Idea  and  General  Character  of  Greek 
Religion.  §  3.  The  Gods  of  Greece  before  Homer.  §  4.  The  Gods  of 
the  Poets.  §  5.  The  Gods  of  the  Artists.  §  6.  The  Gods  of  the  Phi¬ 
losophers.  §7.  The  Worship  of  Greece.  §8.  The  Mysteries.  Orohism. 
§  9.  Relation  of  Greek  Religion  to  Christianity. 


1.  The  Land  and  the  Lace. 


HE  little  promontory  and  peninsula,  famous  in  the 


x  history  of  mankind  as  Greece,  or  Hellas,  projects 
into  the  Mediterranean  Sea  from  the  South  of  Europe.  It 
is  insignificant  on  the  map,  its  area  being  only  two  thirds 
as  large  as  that  of  the  State  of  Maine.  But  never  was  a 
country  better  situated  in  order  to  develop  a  new  civiliza¬ 
tion.  A  temperate  climate,  where  the  vine,  olive,  and  fig 
ripened  with  wheat,  barley,  and  flax ;  a  rich  alluvial  soil, 
resting  on  limestone,  and  contained  in  a  series  of  valleys, 
each  surrounded  by  mountains  ;  a  position  equally  re¬ 
mote  from  excesses  of  heat  and  cold,  dryness  and  mois¬ 
ture  ;  and  finally,  the  ever-present  neighborhood  of  the 
sea,  —  constituted  a  home  well  fitted  for  the  physical 
culture  of  a  perfect  race  of  men. 

Comparative  Geography,  which  has  pointed  out  so  many 
relations  between  the  terrestrial  conditions  of  nations  and 
their  moral  attainments,  has  laid  great  stress  on  the  con¬ 
nection  between  the  extent  of  sea-coast  and  a  country’s 
civilization.  The  sea  line  of  Europe,  compared  with  its 
area,  is  more  extensive  than  that  of  any  other  continent, 
and  Europe  has  had  a  more  various  and  complete  intellec¬ 
tual  development  than  elsewhere.  Africa,  which  has  the 
shortest  sea  line  compared  with  its  area,  has  been  most 
tardy  in  mental  activity.  The  sea  is  the  highway  of 
nations  and  the  promoter  of  commerce ;  and  commerce, 
which  brings  different  races  together,  awakens  the  intel- 


260 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


lect  by  the  contact  of  different  languages,  religions,  arts, 
and  manners.  Material  civilization,  it  is  true,  does  not 
commence  on  the  sea-shore,  but  in  river  intervals.  The 
arts  of  life  were  invented  in  the  valleys  of  the  Indus 
and  Ganges,  of  the  Yellow  and  Blue  Bivers  of  China,  of 
the  Euphrates  and  the  Nile.  But  the  Phoenician  naviga¬ 
tors  in  the  Mediterranean  brought  to  the  shores  of  Greece 
the  knowledge  of  the  arts  of  Egypt,  the  manufactures 
of  Tyre,  and  the  products  of  India  and  Africa.  Every 
part  of  the  coast  of  Greece  is  indented  with  bays  and 
harbors.  The  Mediterranean,  large  enough  to  separate 
the  nations  on  its  shores,  and  so  permit  independent  and 
distinct  evolution  of  character,  is  not  so  large  as  to  divide 
them.  Coasting  vessels,  running  within  sight  of  land, 
could  easily  traverse  its  shores.  All  this  tempted  to 
navigation,  and  so  the  Greeks  learned  to  be  a  race  of 
sailors.  What  the  shore  line  of  Europe  was  to  that  of 
the  other  continents,  that  the  shore  line  of  Greece 
was  to  the  rest  of  Europe.  Only  long  after,  in  the  Bal¬ 
tic,  the  Northern  Mediterranean,  did  a  similar  land-locked 
sea  create  a  similar  love  of  navigation  among  the  Scan¬ 
dinavians.* 

Another  feature  in  the  physical  geography  of  Greece 
must  be  noticed  as  having  an  effect  on  the  psychical  con¬ 
dition  of  its  inhabitants.  Mountains  intersected  every 
part,  dividing  its  tribes  from  each  other.  In  numerous 
valleys,  separated  by  these  mountain  walls,  each  clan, 
left  to  itself,  formed  a  special  character  of  its  own.  The 
great  chain  of  Pindus  with  its  many  branches,  the  lofty 
ridges  of  the  Peloponnesus,  allowed  the  people  of  Thes¬ 
saly,  Boeotia,  Attica,  Phocis,  Locris,  Argolis,  Arcadia, 
Laconia,  to  attain  those  individual  traits  which  distin¬ 
guish  them  during  all  the  course  of  Greek  history. 

*  Mr.  Grote(Vol.  II.  p.  222,  American  edition)  refers  to  Strabo’s  remark 
on  the  great  superiority  of  Europe  over  Asia  and  Africa  in  regard  to  the 
intersection  and  interpenetration  of  the  land  by  the  sea.  He  also  quotes 
Cicero,  who  says  that  all  Greece  is  in  close  contact  to  the  sea,  and  only 
two  or  three  tribes  separated  from  it,  while  the  Greek  islands  swim  among 
the  waves  with  their  customs  and  institutions.  He  says  that  the  ancients 
remarked  the  greater  activity,  mutability,  and  variety  in  the  life  of  mari- 
.  time  nations. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


261 


Such  physical  conditions  as  we  have  described  are 
eminently  favorable  to  a  free  and  full  development  of 
national  character.  But  this  word  “  development/’  so  fa¬ 
miliar  to  modern  thought,  implies  not  only  outward  circum¬ 
stances  to  educate,  but  a  special  germ  to  be  educated. 
So  long  as  the  human  being  is  regarded  as  a  lump  of 
dough,  to  be  moulded  into  any  shape  by  external  influ¬ 
ences,  no  such  term  as  “  development  ”  was  needed.  But 
philosophical  historians  now  admit  national  character  to 
be  the  result  of  two  factors,  —  the  original  ethnic  germ  in 
the  race,  and  the  terrestrial  influences  which  unfold  it  * 
A  question,  therefore,  of  grave  moment  concerns  the 
origin  of  the  Hellenic  people.  Whence  are  they  derived  ? 
what  are  their  affinities  ?  and  from  what  region  did  they 
come  ? 

The  science  of  Comparative  Philology,  one  of  the  great 
triumphs  of  modern  scholarship,  has  enabled  us  now,  for 
the  first  time,  to  answer  this  question.  What  no  Greek 
knew,  what  neither  Herodotus,  Plato,  nor  Aristotle  could 
tell  us,  we  are  now  able  to  state  with  certainty.  The 
Greek  language,  both  in  its  grammar  and  its  vocabu¬ 
lary,  belongs  to  the  family  of  Indo-European  languages,  of 
which  the  Sanskrit  is  the  elder  sister.  Out  of  eleven 
thousand  six  hundred  and  thirty-three  Greek  words, 
some  two  thousand  are  found  to  be  Sanskrit,  and  three 
thousand  more  to  belong  to  other  branches  of  the 
Indo-European  tongues.  As  the  words  common  to  the 
Greek  and  the  Sanskrit  must  have  been  in  use  by 
both  races  before  their  separation,  while  living  together 
in  Central  Asia,  we  have  a  clew  to  the  degree  of  civil¬ 
ization  attained  by  the  Greeks  before  they  arrived  in 
Europe.  Thus  it  appears  that  they  brought  from  Asia 
a  familiarity  with  oxen  and  cows,  horses,  dogs,  swine, 
goats,  geese ;  that  they  could  work  in  metals ;  that  they 
built  houses,  and  were  acquainted  with  the  elements 
of  agriculture,  especially  with  farinaceous  grains ;  they 
used  salt ;  they  had  boats  propelled  by  oars,  but  not 


*  Mr.  Buckle  is  almost  the  only  marked  exception.  He  nowhere  rec¬ 
ognizes  the  doctrine  of  race. 


262 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


sails  ;  they  divided  the  year  by  moons,  and  had  a  decimal 
notation.* 

The  Greeks,  as  a  race,  came  from  Asia  later  than  the 
Latin  races.  They  belonged  to  that  powerful  Indo- 
European  race,  to  which  Europe  owes  its  civilization,  and 
whose  chief  branches  are  the  Hindoos,  the  Persians,  the 
Greeks,  the  Latins,  the  Kelts,  the  Teutonic  tribes,  and  the 
Slavi.  The  original  site  of  the  race  was,  as  we  have  seen 
in  our  chapter  on  Brahmanism,  in  Bactria ;  and  the 
earliest  division  of  this  people  could  not  have  been  later 
than  three  thousand  or  four  thousand  years  before  the 
Christian  era.  When  the  Hellenic  branch  entered  Europe 
we  have  now  no  means  of  saying.  It  was  so  long  anterior 
to  Greek  history  that  all  knowledge  of  the  time  was  lost, 
and  only  the  faintest  traditions  of  an  Asiatic  origin  of 
their  nation  are  to  be  found  in  Greek  writers. 

The  Hellenic  tribes,  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventh 
century  before  Christ,  were  divided  into  four  groups,  —  the 
Acliaians,  H^olians,  Dorians,  and  Ionians,  —  with  outlying 
tribes  more  or  less  akin.  But  this  Hellenic  people  had 
been  preceded  in  Greece  by  another  race  known  as  Pelas- 
gians.  It  is  so  difficult  to  say  who  these  were,  that  Mr. 
Grote,  in  despair,  pronounces  them  unknowable,  and  relin¬ 
quishes  the  problem.  Some  facts  concerning  them  may, 
however,  be  considered  as  established.  Their  existence  in 
Greece  is  pronounced  by  Thirwrall  to  be  “  the  first  un¬ 
questionable  fact  in  Greek  history.”  Homer  speaks  (Iliad, 
II.  681)  of  “Pelasgian  Argos,”  and  of  “  spear-skilled 
Pelasgians,”  “  noble  Pelasgians,”  “  Pelasgians  inhabiting 
fertile  Larissa  ”  (II.  840  ;  X.  429).  Herodotus  frequently 

*  Tlie  ox  is,  in  Sanskrit  go  or  gads,  in  Latin  bos,  in  Greek  /3o0s. 

The  horse  is,  in  Sanskrit  aqva,  in  Zend  aqpa,  in  Greek  hnros ,  in  Latin 
equus. 

The  sheep  is,  in  Sanskrit  avis,  in  Latin  ovis,  in  Greek  Si's. 

The  goose  is,  in  Sanskrit  hansa,  in  Latin  anser ,  in  Old  German  kans, 
in  Greek  xvv- 

House  is,  in  Sanskrit  davia,  in  Latin  domus,  in  Greek  86/xos.  Door  is, 
in  Sanskrit  dvdr  or  duara,  in  Greek  dupa,  in  Irish  doras. 

Boat  or  ship  is,  in  Sanskrit  naus,  in  Latin  navis,  in  Greek  mCs.  Oar 
is,  in  Sanskrit  aritram,  in  Greek  eperpos,  in  Latin  remus. 

The  Greeks  distinguished  themselves  from  the  Barbarians  as  a  grain¬ 
eating  race.  Barbarians  ate  acorns. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


263 


speaks  of  the  Pelasgians.  He  says  that  the  Dorians  were 
a  Hellenic  nation,  the  Ionians  were  Pelasgic  ;  he  does  not 
profess  to  know  what  language  the  Pelasgians  used,  but 
says  that  those  who  in  his  time  inhabited  Crestona, 
Placia,  and  other  regions,  spoke  a  barbarous  language, 
and  that  the  people  of  Attica  were  formerly  Pelasgic. 
He  mentions  the  Pelasgians  as  remaining  to  his  time 
in  Arcadia,  after  the  Dorians  had  expelled  them  from  the 
rest  of  the  Peloponnesus ;  says  that  the  Samothracians 
adopted  the  mysteries  of  the  Kabiri  from  the  Pelasgians  ; 
that  the  Pelasgians  sacrificed  victims  to  unknown  gods  at 
Dodona,  and  asked  that  oracle  advice  about  what  names 
they  should  give  their  gods.  These  names,  taken  from 
Egypt,  the  Grecians  received  from  them.  Hellas  was  for¬ 
merly  called  Pelasgia.  The  Athenians  expelled  the  Pelas¬ 
gians  from  Attica  (whether  justly  or  unjustly,  Herodotus 
does  not  undertake  to  say),  where  they  were  living  under 
Mount  Hymettus ;  whereupon  the  Pelasgians  of  Lemnos, 
in  revenge,  carried  off  a  number  of  Athenian  women,  and 
afterward  murdered  them ;  as  an  expiation  of  which  crime 
they  were  finally  commanded  by  the  oracle  at  Delphi  to 
surrender  that  island  to  Miltiades  and  the  Athenians. 
Herodotus  repeatedly  informs  us  that  nearly  the  whole 
Ionian  race  were  formerly  called  Pelasgians.* 

Prom  all  this  it  appears  that  the  Pelasgians  were  the 
ancient  occupants  of  nearly  all  Greece ;  that  they  were 
probably  of  the  same  stock  as  their  Hellenic  successors, 
but  of  another  branch;  that  their  language  was  some¬ 
what  different,  and  contained  words  of  barbaric  (that  is 
Phoenician  or  Egyptian)  origin,  but  not  so  different  as  to 
remain  distinct  after  the  conquest.  Prom  the  Pelasgian 
names  which  remain,  it  is  highly  probable  that  this  people 
was  of  the  same  family  with  the  old  Italians.")-  They  must 
have  constituted  the  main  stem  of  the  Greek  people. 
The  Ionians  of  Attica,  the  most  brilliant  portion  of  the 
Greeks,  were  of  Pelasgic  origin.  It  may  be  therefore  as- 

*  Herod.,  I.  56,  57,  146  ;  II.  51,  171  ;  IV.  145  ;  V.  26  ;  VI.  137  ; 
VII.  94  ;  VIII.  44,  73. 

t  Maury,  Histoire  des  Religions  de  la  Grece  Antique,  Chap.  I.  p.  5. 
He  mentions  several  Pelasgic  words  which  seem  to  be  identical  with  old 
Italian  or  Etruscan  names.  _  , 


264 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


sumed,  without  much  improbability,  that  while  the  Dorian 
element  gave  the  nation  its  strength  and  vital  force, 
the  Pelasgic  was  the  source  of  its  intellectual  activity 
and  success  in  literature  and  art.  Ottfried  Muller  re¬ 
marks  that  “  there  is  no  doubt  that  most  of  the  ancient 
religions  of  Greece  owed  their  origin  to  this  race.  The 
Zeus  and  Dione  of  Dodona,  Zeus  and  Here  of  Argos, 
Hephcestos  and  Athene  of  Athens,  Demeter  and  Cora  of 
Eleusis,  Hermes  and  Artemis  of  Arcadia,  together  with 
Cadmus  and  the  Cabiri  of  Thebes,  cannot  properly  he 
referred  to  any  other  origin.”  * 

Welcker*)-  thinks  that  the  ethnological  conceptions  of 
ZEschylus,  in  his  “  Suppliants,”  are  invaluable  helps  in  the 
study  of  the  Pelasgic  relations  to  the  Greeks.  The  poet 
makes  Pelasgos  the  king  of  Argos,  and  represents  him  as 
ruling  over  the  largest  part  of  Greece.  His  subjects  he 
calls  Greeks,  and  they  vote  in  public  assembly  by  holding 
up  their  hands,  so  distinguishing  them  from  the  Dorians, 
among  whom  no  such  democracy  prevailed.  J  He  pro¬ 
tects  the  suppliant  women  against  their  Egyptian  persecu¬ 
tors,  who  claimed  them  as  fugitives  from  slavery.  The 
character  assigned  by  ZEschylus  to  this  representative  of 
the  Pelasgian  race  is  that  of  a  just,  wise,  and  religious 
king,  who  judged  that  it  was  best  to  obey  God,  even  at 
the  risk  of  displeasing  man. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  from  the  earliest  times  there 
were  in  Greece  two  distinct  elements,  either  two  different 
races  or  two  very  distinct  branches  of  a  common  race. 
First  known  as  Pelasgians  and  Hellenes,  they  afterwards 
took  form  as  the  Ionian  and  Dorian  peoples.  And  it  is 
evident  also  that  the  Greek  character,  so  strong  yet  so  * 
flexible,  so  mighty  to  act  and  so  open  to  receive,  with  its 
stern  virtues  and  its  tender  sensibilities,  was  the  result  of 
the  mingling  of  these  antagonist  tendencies.  Two  conti¬ 
nents  may  have  met  in  Greece,  if  to  the  genius  of  that 
wonderful  people  Asia  lent  her  intellect  and  Africa  heT 
fire.  It  was  the  marriage  of  soul  and  body,  of  nature  and 

*  Muller,  Dorians,  Introduction,  §  10. 

+  Griechische  Gotterlehre,  Einleitung,  §  6. 

X  See  Muller,  Dorians. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


265* 

i 

spirit,  of  abstract  speculation  and  passionate  interest  in 
this  life.  Darkness  rests  on  the  period  when  this  national 
life  was  being  created ;  the  Greeks  themselves  have  pre¬ 
served  no  record  of  it. 

That  some  powerful  influence  from  Egypt  was  acting 
on  Greece  during  this  forming  period,  and  contributing 
its  share  to  the  great  result,  there  can  hardly  be  a  ques¬ 
tion.  All  the  legends  and  traditions  hint  at  such  a  re- 
lation,  and  if  this  were  otherwise,  we  might  be  sure  that 
it  must  have  existed.  Egypt  was  in  all  her  power  and 
splendor  when  Greece  was  being  settled  by  the  Aryans 
from  Asia.  They  were  only  a  few  hundred  miles  apart, 
and  the  ships  of  Phoenicia  were  continually  sailing  to 
and  fro  between  them. 

The  testimony  of  Greek  writers  to  the  early  influence 
of  Egypt  on  their  country  and  its  religion  is  very  full. 
Creuzer  *  says  that  the  Greek  writers  differed  in  regard  to 
the  connection  of  Attic  and  Egyptian  culture,  only  as  to 
How  it  was,  not  as  to  Whether  it  was.  Herodotus  says 
distinctly  and  positively  *(*  that  most  of  the  names  of  the 
Greek  gods  came  from  Egypt,  except  some  whose  names 
came  from  the  Pelasgians.  The  Pelasgians  themselves, 
he  adds,  gave  these  Egyptian  names  to  the  unnamed 
powers  of  nature  whom  they  before  ignorantly  wor¬ 
shipped,  being  directed  by  the  oracle  at  Dodona  so  to  do. 

By  “  name  ”  here,  Herodotus  plainly  intends  more  than  a 
mere  appellation.  He  includes  also  something  of  the 
personality  and  character.  J  Before  they  were  impersonal 
beings,  powers  of  nature ;  afterwards,  under  Egyptian 
influence,  they  became  persons.  He  particularly  insists 
on  having  heard  this  from  the  priestesses  of  Dodona, 
who  also  told  him  a  story  of  the  black  pigeon  from  Egypt, 
who  first  directed  the  oracle  to  be  established,  which  he 
interpreted,  according  to  what  he  had  heard  in  Egypt,  to 
be  a  black  Egyptian  woman.  He  adds  that  the  Greeks 

*  Symbolik  und  Mythologie,  Th.  III.,  Heft  1,  chap.  5,  §  1. 

+  Herod.  II.  50  et  scq. 

£  Among  the  ancients  ’Ovbfia  often  had  this  force.  It  denoted  per-  • 
sonality.  The  meaning,  therefore,  of  Herodotus  is  that  the  Egyptians 
taught  the  Greeks  to  give  their  deities  proper  names,  instead  of  common 
names.  A  proper  name  is  the  sign  of  personality. 

12. 


266 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


received,  not  only  their  oracles,  but  their  public  proces¬ 
sions,  festivals,  and  solemn  prayers  from  the  Egyptians. 
M.  Maury  admits  the  influence  of  Egypt  on  the  worship 
and  ceremonies  of  Greece,  and  thinks  it  added  to  their 
religion  a  more  serious  tone  and  a  sentiment  of  venera¬ 
tion  for  the  gods,  which  were  eminently  beneficial.  He 
doubts  the  story  of  Herodotus  concerning  the  derivation 
of  gods  from  Egypt,  giving  as  a  sufficient  proof  the  fact 
that  Homer’s  knowledge  of  Egyptian  geography  was 
very  imperfect.*  But  religious  influences  and  geograph¬ 
ical  knowledge  are  very  different  things.  Because  the 
mediaeval  Christian  writers  had  an  imperfect  knowledge 
of  Palestine,  it  does  not  follow  that  their  Christianity 
was  not  influenced  in  its  source  by  Judaism.  The  objec¬ 
tion  to  the  derivation  of  the  Greek  gods  from  Egypt,  on 
account  of  the  names  on  the  monuments  being  different 
from  those  of  the  Hellenic  deities,  is  sufficiently  answered 
by  Creuzer,  who  shows  that  the  Greeks  translated  the 
Egyptian  word  into  an  equivalent  in  their  own  language. 
Orphic  ideas  came  from  Egypt  into  Greece,  through  the 
colonies  in  Thrace  and  Samothrace.*)*  The  story  of  the 
Argive  colony  from  Egypt,  with  their  leader  Danaus, 
connects  some  Egyptian  immigration  with  the  old  Pe- 
lasgic  ruler  of  that  city,  the  walls  of  which  contained  Pelas- 
gic  masonry.  The  legends  concerning  Cecrops,  Io,  and 
Lelex,  as  leading  colonies  from  Egypt  to  Athens  and 
Megara,  are  too  doubtful  to  add  much  to  our  argument. 
The  influence  of  Egypt  on  Greek  religion  in  later  times 
is  universally  admitted.  J 

§  2.  Idea  and  General  Character  of  Greek  Religion. 

The  idea  of  Greek  religion,  which  specially  distin¬ 
guishes  it  from  all  others,  is  the  human  character  of  its 
gods.  The  gods  of  Greece  are  men  and  women,  ideal¬ 
ized  men  and  women,  men  and  women  on  a  larger  scale, 
but  still  intensely  human.  The  gods  of  India,  as  they 

*  Maury,  Religions  de  la  Grece,  III.  263. 

+  Diod.  Sic.,  I.  92-  96. 

£  Gerhard,  Griechische  Mythologie,  §  50,  Yol.  1. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


267 


appear  in  the  Sacred  Books,  are  vast  abstractions ;  and  as 
they  appear  in  sculpture,  hideous  and  grotesque  idols. 
The  gods  of  Egypt  seem  to  pass  away  into  mere  symbols 
and  intellectual  generalizations.  But  the  gods  of  Greece 
are  persons,  warm  with  life,  radiant  with  beauty,  having 
their  human  adventures,  wars,  loves.  The  symbolical 
meaning  of  each  god  disappears  in  his  personal  character. 

These  beings  do  not  keep  to  their  own  particular  sphere 
nor  confine  themselves  to  their  special  parts,  but,  like 
men  and  women,  have  many  different  interests  and 
occupations.  If  we  suppose  a  number  of  human  beings, 
young  and  healthy  and  perfectly  organized,  to  be  gifted 
with  an  immortal  life  and  miraculous  endowments  of 
strength,  wisdom,  and  beauty,  we  shall  have  the  gods  of 
Olympus. 

Greek  religion  differs  from  Brahmanism  in  this,  that  its 
gods  are  not  abstract  spirit,  but  human  beings.  It  differs 
also  from  Buddhism,  the  god  in  which  is  also  a  man,  in 
this,  that  the  gods  of  Greece  are  far  less  moral  than 
Buddha,  but  far  more  interesting.  They  are  not  trying 
to  save  their  souls,  they  are  by  no  means  ascetic,  they 
have  no  intention  of  making  progress  through  the  uni¬ 
verse  by  obeying  the  laws  of  nature,  but  they  are  bent  on 
having  a  good  time.  Fighting,  feasting,  and  making  love 
are  their  usual  occupations.  If  they  can  be  considered  as 
governing  the  world,  it  is  in  a  very  loose  way  and  on  a 
very  irregular  system.  They  interfere  with  human  affairs 
from  time  to  time,  but  merely  from  whim  or  from  passion. 
With  the  common  relations  of  life  they  have  little  to  do. 
They  announce  no  moral  law,  and  neither  by  precept  nor 
example  undertake  to  guide  men’s  consciences. 

The  Greek  religion  differs  from  many  other  religions 
also  in  having  no  one  great  founder  or  restorer,  in  having 
no  sacred  books  and  no  priestly  caste.  It  was  not  estab¬ 
lished  by  the  labors  of  a  Zoroaster,  Gautama,  Confucius, 
or  Mohammed.  It  has  no  Avesta,  no  Vedas,  no  Ko¬ 
ran.  Every  religion  which  we  have  thus  far  considered 
has  its  sacred  books,  but  that  of  Greece  has  none,  un¬ 
less  we  accept  the  works  of  Homer  and  Hesiod  as  its 
Bible.  Still  more  remarkable  is  the  fact  of  its  having  no 


268 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


priestly  caste.  Brahmanism  and  Egypt  have  an  heredi¬ 
tary  priesthood ;  and  in  all  other  religions,  though  the 
priesthood  might  not  he  hereditary,  it  always  constituted 
a  distinct  caste.  But  in  Greece  kings  and  generals  and 
common  people  offer  sacrifices  and  prayers,  as  well  as  the 
priests.  Priests  obtained  their  office,  not  by  inheritance, 
but  by  appointment  or  election;  and  they  were  often 
chosen  for  a  limited  time. 

Another  peculiarity  of  the  Greek  religion  was  that  its 
gods  were  not  manifestations  of  a  supreme  spirit,  but  were 
natural  growths.  They  did  not  come  down  from  above, 
but  came  up  from  below.  They  did  not  emanate,  they 
were  evolved.  The  Greek  Pantheon  is  a  gradual  and 
steady  development  of  the  national  mind.  And  it  is  still 
more  remarkable  that  it  has  three  distinct  sources,  —  the 
poets,  the  artists,  and  the  philosophers.  Jupiter,  or  Zeus 
in  Homer,  is  oftenest  a  man  of  immense  strength,  so  strong 
that  if  he  has  hold  of  one  end  of  a  chain  and  all  the  gods 
hold  the  other,  with  the  earth  fastened  to  it  beside,  he 
will  be  able  to  move  them  all.  Ear  more  grand  is  the 
conception  of  Jupiter  as  it  came  from  the  chisel  of  Phidi¬ 
as,  of  which  Quintilian  says  that  it  added  a  new  religious 
sentiment  to  the  religion  of  Greece.  Then  came  the  phi¬ 
losophers  and  gave  an  entirely  different  and  higher  view 
of  the  gods.  Jupiter  becomes  with  them  the  Supreme 
Being,  father  of  gods  and  of  men,  omnipotent  and  omni¬ 
present. 

One  striking  consequence  of  the  absence  of  sacred 
books,  of  a  sacred  priesthood,  and  an  inspired  founder  of 
their  religion,  was  the  extreme  freedom  of  the  whole  sys¬ 
tem.  The  religion  of  Hellas  was  hardly  a  restraint 
either  to  the  mind  or  to  the  conscience.  It  allowed  the 
Greeks  to  think  what  they  would  and  to  do  what  they 
chose.  They  made  their  gods  to  suit  themselves,  and 
regarded  them  rather  as  companions  than  as  objects  of 
reverence.  The  gods  lived  close  to  them  on  Olympus,  a 
precipitous  and  snow-capped  range  full  of  vast  cliffs, 
deep  glens,  and  extensive  forests,  less  than  ten  thousand 
feet  in  height,  though  covered  with  snow  on  the  top 
even  in  the  middle  of  July. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


269 


According  to  the  Jewish  religion,  man  was  made  in- the 
image  of  God ;  but  according  to  the  Greek  religion  the 
gods  were  made  in  the  image  of  men.  Heraclitus  says, 
“  Men  are  mortal  gods,  and  the  gods  immortal  men.”  The 
Greek  fancied  the  gods  to  be  close  to  him  on  the  summit 
of  the  mountain  which  he  saw  among  the  clouds,  often 
mingling  in  disguise  with  mankind ;  a  race  of  stronger 
and  brighter  Greeks,  but  not  very  much  wiser  or  better. 
All  their  own  tendencies  they  beheld  reflected  in  their 
deities.  They  projected  themselves  upon  the  heavens, 
and  saw  with  pleasure  a  race  of  divine  Greeks  in  the 
skies  above,  corresponding  with  the  Greeks  below.  A 
delicious  religion  ;  without  austerity,  asceticism,  or  terror ; 
a  religion  filled  with  forms  of  beauty  and  nobleness,  kin¬ 
dred  to  their  own  ;  with  gods  who  were  capricious  indeed, 
but  never  stern,  and  seldom  jealous  or  very  cruel.  It 
was  a  heaven  so  near  at  hand,  that  their  own  heroes  had 
climbed  into  it,  and  become  demigods.  It  was  a  heaven 
peopled  with  such  a  variety  of  noble  forms,  that  they 
could  choose  among  them  the  protector  whom  they  liked 
best,  and  possibly  themselves  be  selected  as  favorites 
by  some  guardian  deity.  The  fortunate  hunter,  of  a  moon¬ 
light  night,  might  even  behold  the  graceful  figure  of  Diana 
flashing  through  the  woods  in  pursuit  of  game,  and  the 
happy  inhabitant  of  Cyprus  come  suddenly  on  the  fair 
form  of  Venus  resting  in  a  laurel-grove.  The  Dryads 
could  be  seen  glancing  among  the  trees,  the  Oreads  heard 
shouting  on  the  mountains,  and  the  Naiads  found  asleep 
by  the  side  of  their  streams.  If  the  Greek  chose,  he 
could  take  his  gods  from  the  poets ;  if  he  liked  it  better, 
he  could  find  them  among  the  artists  ;  or  if  neither  of 
these  suited  him,  he  might  go  to  the  philosophers  for  his 
deities. 

The  Greek  religion,  therefore,  did  not  guide  or  restrain, 
it  only  stimulated.  The  Greek,  by  intercourse  with 
Greek  gods,  became  more  a  Greek  than  ever.  Every  Hel¬ 
lenic  feeling  and  tendency  was  personified  and  took  a 
divine  form ;  which  divine  form  reacted  on  the  tendency 
to  develop  it  still  further.  All  this  contributed  unques¬ 
tionably  to  that  wonderful  phenomenon,  Greek  develop- 


270 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


ment.  Nowhere  on  the  earth,  before  or  since,  lias  the 
human  being  been  educated  into  such  a  wonderful  perfec¬ 
tion,  such  an  entire  and  total  unfolding  of  itself,  as  in 
Greece.  There,  every  human  tendency  and  faculty  of 
soul  and  body  opened  in  symmetrical  proportion.  That 
small  country,  so  insignificant  on  the  map  of  Europe,  so 
invisible  on  the  map  of  the  world,  carried  to  perfection  in 
a  few  short  centuries  every  human  art.  Everything  in 
Greece  is  art ;  because  everything  is  finished,  done  per¬ 
fectly  well.  In  that  garden  of  the  world  ripened  the 
masterpieces  of  epic,  tragic,  comic,  lyric,  didactic  poetry ; 
the  masterpieces  in  every  school  of  philosophic  investiga¬ 
tion  ;  the  masterpieces  of  history,  of  oratory,  of  mathe¬ 
matics  ;  the  masterpieces  of  architecture,  sculpture,  and 
painting.  Greece  developed  every  form  of  human  gov¬ 
ernment,  and  in  Greece  were  fought  and  won  the  great 
battles  of  the  world.  Before  Greece,  everything  in 
human  literature  and  art  was  a  rude  and  imperfect  at¬ 
tempt;  since  Greece,  everything  has  been  a  rude  and 
imperfect  imitation. 

§  3.  The  Gods  of  Greece  before  Homer. 

The  Theogony  of  Hesiod,  or  Book  of  Genesis  of  the 
Greek  gods,  gives  us  the  history  of  three  generations  of 
deities.  First  come  the  Uranids ;  secondly,  the  Titans  ; 
and  thirdly,  the  gods  of  Olympus.  Beginning  as  powers 
of  nature,  they  end  as  persons.* 

The  substance  of  Hesiod’s  charming  account  of  these 
three  groups  of  gods  is  as  follows  :  — 

First  of  all  things  was  Chaos.  Next  was  broad-bos¬ 
omed  Earth,  or  Gaia.  Then  was  Tartarus,  dark  and  dim, 
below  the  earth.  Next  appears  Eros,  or  Love,  most  beau¬ 
tiful  among  the  Immortals.  From  Chaos  came  Erebus 
and  black  Night,  and  then  sprang  forth  Ether  and  Hay, 

*  Mr.  Grote  (History  of  Greece,  Part  I.  Cliap.  I.)  maintains  that 
Heaven,  Night,  Sleep,  and  Dream  “are  Persons,  just  as  much  as  Zeus 
and  Apollo.”  I  confess  that  I  can  hardly  understand  his  meaning.  The 
first  have  neither  personal  qualities,  personal  life,  personal  history,  nor 
personal  experience  ;  they  appear  only  as  vast  abstractions,  and  so  disap. 
pear  again. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


271 


children  of  Erebus  and  Night.  Then  Earth  brought  forth 
the  starry  Heaven,  Uranos,  like  to  herself  in  size,  that  he 
might  shelter  her  around.  Gaia,  or  Earth,  also  bore  the 
mountains,  and  Pontus  or  the  barren  Sea. 

Then  Gaia  intermarried  with  Uranos,  and  produced  the 
Titans  and  Titanides,  namely,  Ocean,  Kceos,  Krios,  Hype¬ 
rion,  Iapetus,  Theia  and  Ehea,  Themis,  Mnemosyne, 
Phoebe  with  golden  coronet,  and  lovely  Thethys.  Lastly 
came  Kronos,  or  Time  ;  with  the  Cyclopes  and  the  hun¬ 
dred-headed  giants.  All  these  children  were  hid  in  the 
earth  by  Uranos,  who  dreaded  them,  till  by  a  contri¬ 
vance  of  Gaia  and  Kronos,  Uranos  was  dethroned,  and 
the  first  age  of  the  gods  was  terminated  by  the  birth  from 
the  sea  of  the  last  and  sweetest  of  the  children  of  the 
Heaven,  Aphrodite,  or  Immortal  Beauty,  —  the  only  one 
of  this  second  generation  who  continued  to  reign  on  Olym¬ 
pus  ;  an  awful,  beauteous  goddess,  says  Hesiod,  beneath 
whose  delicate  feet  the  verdure  throve  around,  born  in 
wave-washed  Cyprus,  but  floating  past  divine  Cythera. 
Her  Eros  accompanied,  and  fair  Desire  followed. 

Thus  was  completed  the  second  generation  of  gods,  the 
children  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  called  Titans.  These  had 
many  children.  The  children  of.  Ocean  and  Tethys  were 
the  nymphs  of  Ocean.  Hyperion  and  Theia  had,  as  chil¬ 
dren,  Helios,  Selene  and  Eos,  or  Sun,  Moon,  and  Dawn. 
Koeos  and  Plioeb6  had  Leto  and  Asteria.  One  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Krios  was  Pallas ;  those  of  Iapetus  were  Prome¬ 
theus,  Epimetheus,  and  Atlas.  Kronos  married  his  sister 
Khea,  and  their  children  were  Hestia,  Demeter  and  Here ; 
Hades,  Poseidon,  and  Zeus,  —  all,  except  Hades  or  Pluto, 
belonging  to  the  subsequent  Olympian  deities. 

The  Olympian  gods,  with  their  cousins  of  the  same 
generation,  have  grown  into  persons,  ceasing  to  be  abstract 
ideas,  or  powers  of  nature.  Five  were  the  children  of 
Kronos,  namely,  Zeus,  Poseidon,  Her6,  Hestia,  and  Deme¬ 
ter;  six  were  children  of  Zeus,  Apollo  and  Artemis, 
Hephsestos  and  Ares,  Hermes  and  Athene.  The  twelfth 
of  the  Olympian  group,  Aphrodite,  belonged  to  the 
second  generation,  being  daughter  of  Uranos  and  of  the 
Ocean.  Beauty,  divine  child  of  Sky  and  Sea,  was  con¬ 
ceived  of  as  older  than  Power. 


*272 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


These  are  the  three  successive  groups  of  deities ;  the 
second  supplanting  the  first,  the  third  displacing  the  sec¬ 
ond.  The  earlier  gods  we  must  needs  consider,  not  as 
persons,  hut  as  powers  of  nature,  not  yet  humanized  * 
The  last,  seated  on  Olympus,  are  “  fair  humanities.’' 

But  now,  it  is  remarkable  that  there  must  have  been, 
in  point  of  fact,  three  stages  of  religious  development, 
and  three  successive  actual  theologies  in  Greece,  corre¬ 
sponding  very  nearly  to  these  three  legendary  generations 
of  gods. 

When  the  ancestors  of  the  Hellenic  race  came  from 
Asia,  they  must  have  brought  with  them  a  nature-wor¬ 
ship,  akin  to  that  which  subsequently  appeared  in  India 
in  the  earliest  hymns  of  the  Vedas.  Comparative  Phi¬ 
lology,  as  we  have  before  seen,  has  established  the  rule, 
that  whatever  words  are  common  to  all  the  seven  Indo- 
European  families  must  have  been  used  in  Central  Asia 
before  their  dispersion.  Erom  this  rule  Pictet  *f*  has  in¬ 
ferred  that  the  original  Aryan  tribes  all  worshipped  the 
Heaven,  the  Earth,  Sun,  Eire,  Water,  and  Wind.  The 
ancestors  of  the  Greeks  must  have  brought  with  them 
into  Hellas  the  worship  of  some  of  these  elementary  de¬ 
ities.  And  we  find  at  jeast  two  of  them,  Heaven  and 
Earth,  represented  in  Hesiod’s  first  class  of  the  oldest  dei¬ 
ties.  Water  is  there  in  the  form  of  Pontus,  the  Sea,  and 
the  other  .Uranids  have  the  same  elementary  character. 

The  oldest  hymns  in  the  Vedas  mark  the  second  devel¬ 
opment  of  the  Aryan  deities  in  India.  The  chief  gods 
of  this  period  are  Indra,  Varuna,  Agni,  Savitri,  Soma. 
Indra  is  the  god  of  the  air,  directing  the  storm,  the  light¬ 
ning,  the  clouds,  the  rain ;  Varuna  is  the  all-embracing 
circle  of  the  heavens,  earth,  and  sea ;  Savitri  or  Surja 
is  the  Sun,  King  of  Hay,  also  called  Mitra ;  Agni  is 
Fire  ;  and  Soma  is  the  sacred  fermented  juice  of  the  moon- 
plant,  often  indeed  the  moon  itself. 

As  in  India,  so  in  Greece,  there  was  a  second  develop- 

*  Keats,  in  his  Hyperion,  is  the  only  modern  poet  who  has  caught 
the  spirit  of  the  mighty  Titanic  deities  and  is  able  to  speak 

“  In  the  large  utterance  of  the  early  gods.” 

+  Pictet,  Les  Origines  Indo-Europeenes. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


273 


ment  of  gods.  They  correspond  in  this,  that  the  powers 
of  nature  began,  in  both  cases,  to  assume  a  more  distinct 
personality.  Moreover,  Indra,  the  god  of  the  atmos¬ 
phere,  he  who  wields  the  lightning,  the  thunderer,  the 
god  of  storms  and  rain,  was  the  chief  god  in  the  Yedic 
period.  So  also  in  Greece,  the  chief  god  in  this  second 
period  was  Zeus.  He  also  was  the  god  of  the  atmosphere, 
the  thunderer,  the  wielder  of  lightning.  In  the  name 
“  Zeus  ”  is  a  reminiscence  of  Asia.  Literally  it  means  “  the 
god,”  and  so  was  not  at  first  a  proper  name.  Its  root  is 
the  Sanskrit  Div,  meaning  “  to  shine.”  Hence  the  word 
Deva,  God,  in  the  Yedic  Hymns,  from  which  comes  Qeos 
and  A  is,  A  ios  in  Greek,  Deus  in  Latin.  Zevs  narep  in  Greek 
is  Jupiter  in  Latin,  coming  trom  the  Sanskrit  Djaus-piter. 
Our  English  words  “ divine,”  “divinity,”  go  back  for  their 
origin  to  the  same  Sanskrit  root,  Div.  So  marvellously 
do  the  wrecks  of  old  beliefs  come  drifting  down  the  stream 
of  time,  borne  up  in  those  frail  canoes  which  men  call 
words.  In  how  many  senses,  higher  and  lower,  is  it  true 
that  “  in  the  beginning  was  the  Word .” 

This  most  ancient  deity,  god  of  storms,  ruler  of  the 
atmosphere,  favorite  divinity  of  the  Aryan  race  in  all  its 
branches,  became  Indra  when  he  reached  India,  Jupiter 
when  he  arrived  in  Italy,  Zeus  when  in  Epirus  he  became 
the  chief  god  of  the  Pelasgi,  and  was  worshipped  at  that 
most  ancient  oracular  temple  of  all  Greece,  Dodona.  To 
him  in  the  Iliad  (XYI.  235)  does  Achilles  pray,  saying : 
“0  King  Jove,  Dodonean,  Pelasgian,  dwelling  afar  off, 
presiding  over  wintry  Dodona.”  A  reminiscence  of  this 
old  Pelasgian  god  long  remained  both  in  the  Latin  and 
Greek  conversation,  when,  speaking  of  the  weather,  they 
called  it  Zeus,  or  Jupiter.  Horace  speaks  of  “cold  Jupi¬ 
ter”  and  “bad  Jupiter,”  as  we  should  speak  of  a  cold  or 
rainy  day.  \Ye  also  find  in  Horace  (Odes  III.  2  :  29)  the 
archaic  form  of  the  word  “Jupiter,”  Diespiter ,  which,  ac¬ 
cording  to  Lassen  (1. 755),  means  “  Euler  of  Heaven” ;  being 
derived  from  Djaus-piter.  Piter,  in  Sanskrit,  originally 
meant,  says  Lassen,  Euler  or  Lord,  as  well  as  Father. 

In  Arcadia  and  Boeotia  the  Pelasgi  declared  that  their 
old  deities  were  born.  By  this  is  no  doubt  conveyed  the 

12  *  K 


274 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


historic  consciousness  that  these  deities  were  not  brought 
to  them  from  abroad,  but  developed  gradually  among 
themselves  out  of  nameless  powers  of  nature  into  human¬ 
ized  and  personal  deities.  In  the  old  days  it  was  hardly 
more  than  a  fetich  worship.  Here  was  worshipped  as  a 
plank  at  Samos  ;  Athene,  as  a  beam  at  Lindus  ;  the  Pallas 
of  Attica,  as  a  stake;  Jupiter,  in  one  place,  as  a  rock; 
Apollo,  as  a  triangle. 

Together  with  Jupiter  or  Zeus,  the  Pelasgi  worshipped 
Gaia  or  Mother  Earth,  in  Athens,  Sparta,  Olympia,  and 
other  places.  One  of  her  names  was  Dione  ;  another  was 
Rhea.  In  Asia  she  was  Cybele  ;  but  everywhere  she  typi¬ 
fied  the  great  productive  power  of  nature. 

Another  Pelasgic  god  was  Helios,  the  Sun-God,  wor¬ 
shipped  with  his  sister  Selene,  the  Moon.  The  Pelasgi 
also  adored  the  darker  divinities  of  the  lower  world.  At 
Pylos  and  Elis,  the  king  of  Hades  was  worshipped  as 
the  awful  Aldoneus  ;  and  Persephone,  his  wife,  was  not  the 
fair  Kora  of  subsequent  times,  but  the  fearful  Queen  of 
Death,  the  murderess,  homologous  to  the  savage  wife  of 
Qiva,  in  the  Hindoo  Pantheon.  To  this  age  also  belongs 
the  worship  of  the  Kabiri,  nameless  powers,  perhaps  of 
Phoenician  origin,  connected  with  the  worship  of  fire  in 
Lemnos  and  Samothrace. 

The  Doric  race,  the  second  great  source  of  the  Hellenic 
family,  entered  Greece  many  hundreds  of  years  after  *  the 
first  great  Pelasgic  migration  had  spread  itself  through 
Asia  Minor,  Greece,  and  Italy,  It  brought  with  it  another 
class  of  gods  and  a  different  tone  of  worship.  Their  prin¬ 
cipal  deities  were  Apollo  and  Artemis,  though  with  these 
they  also  worshipped,  as  secondary  deities,  the  Pelasgic 
gods  whose  homes  they  had  invaded.  The  chief  differ¬ 
ence  between  the  Pelasgic  and  Dorian  conception  of 
religion  was,  that  with  the  first  it  was  more  emotional, 
with  the  second  more  moral ;  the  first  was  a  mystic  natu¬ 
ral  religion,  the  second  an  intellectual  human  religion. 
Ottfried  Muller*)*  says  that  the  Dorian  piety  was  strong, 
cheerful,  and  bright.  They  worshipped  Daylight  and 

*  B.  C.  1104.  Dollinger. 

+  Die  Dorier,  X.  9. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


275 


Moonlight,  while  the  Pelasgians  also  reverenced  Night, 
Darkness,  and  Storm.  Funeral  solemnities  and  enthusi¬ 
astic  orgies  did  not  suit'  the  Dorian  character.  The  Spar¬ 
tans  had  no  splendid  processions  like  the  Athenians,  but 
they  prayed  the  gods  “  to  give  them  what  was  honorable 
and  good  ” ;  and  Zeus  Ammon  declared  that  the  “  calm 
solemnity  of  the  prayers  of  the  Spartans  was  dearer  to 
him  than  all  the  sacrifices  of  the  Greeks.”  * 

Two  facts  are  to  be  noticed  in  connection  with  this 
primitive  religion.  One  is  the  local  distribution  of  the 
different  deities  and  modes  of  worship  through  Greece. 
Every  tribe  had  its  own  god  and  its  own  worship.  In  one 
place  it  was  Zeus  and  Gaia ;  in  another,  Zeus  and  Cybele ; 
in  a  third,  Apollo  and  Artemis.  At  Samothrace  prevailed 
the  worship  of  the  Heaven  and  the  Earth.*)*  Dione  was 
worshipped  with  Zeus  at  Dodona.  J  The  Ionians  were 
devoted  to  Poseidon,  god  of  the  sea.  In  Arcadia,  Athene 
was  worshipped  as  Tritonia.  Hermes  was  adored  on 
Mount  Cyllene ;  Eros,  in  Boeotia ;  Pan,  in  Arcadia.  These 
local  deities  long  remained  as  secondary  gods,  after  the 
Pan-Hellenic  worship  of  Olympus  had  overthrown  their 
supremacy.  But  one  peculiarity  of  the  Pre-Homeric 
religion  was,  that  it  consisted  in  the  adoration  of  different 
gods  in  different  places.  The  religion  of  Hellas,  after 
Homer,  was  the  worship  of  the  twelve  great  deities  united 
on  Mount  Olympus. 

The  second  fact  to  he  observed  in  this  early  mythology 
is  the  change  of  name  and  of  character  through  which  each 
deity  proceeds.  Zeus  alone  retains  the  same  name  from 
the  first. § 

Among  all  Indo-European  nations,  the  Heaven  and  the 
Earth  were  the  two  primordial  divinities.  The  Rig-Veda 
calls  them  “the  two  great  parents  of  the  world.”  At 

*  Ottfried  Muller,  Die  Dorier. 

+  Varro,  quoted  by  Maury. 

+  Dione  was  the  female  Jupiter,  her  name  meaning  simply  “the  god¬ 
dess,”  identical  with  the  Italic  “Juno,”  formed  from  A«6s. 

§  But  not  the  same  character.  At  Dodona  he  was  invoked  as  the 
Eternal.  Pausanias  (X.  c.  12,  §  5)  says  that  the  priestesses  of  that 
shrine  used  this  formula  in  their  prayer  :  “Zeus  was,  Zeus  is,  Zeus  shall 
be  !  0  great  Zeus  !  ”  On  Olympus  he  was  not  conceived  as  eternal, 

but  only  as  immortal. 


276 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Dodona,  Samothrace,  and  Sparta  they  were  worshipped 
together.  But  while  in  India,  Varuna,  the  Heavens,  con¬ 
tinued  to  he  an  object  of  adoration  in  the  Yedic  or  second 
period,  in  Greece  it  faded  early  from  the  popular  thought. 
This  already  shows  the  opposite  genius  of  the  two  nations. 
To  the  Hindoos  the  infinite  was  all  important,  to  the 
Greeks  the  finite.  The  former,  therefore,  retain  the  adora¬ 
tion  of  the  Heavens,  the  latter  that  of  the  Earth. 

The  Earth,  Gaia,  became  more  and  more  important  to 
the  Hellenic  mind.  Passing  through  various  stages  of 
development,  she  became,  successively,  Gaia  in  the  first 
generation,  Khea  in  the  second,  and  Demeter  (vf)  MTrip), 
Mother  Earth,  in  the  third.  In  like  manner  the  Sun  is 
successively  Hyperion,  son  of  Heaven  and  Earth ;  Helios, 
son  of  Hyperion  and  Theia ;  and  Phoebus-Apollo,  son  of 
Zeus  and  Latona.  The  Moon  is  first  Phoebe,  sister  of 
Hyperion;  then  Selene,  sister  of  Helios;  and  lastly 
Artemis,  sister  of  Apollo.  Pallas,  probably  meaning  at 
first  “  the  virgin,”  became  afterward  identified  with 
Athene,  daughter  of  Zeus,  as  Pallas- Athene.  The  Urania 
Pontus,  the  salt  sea,  became  the  Titan  Oceanos,  or  Ocean, 
and  in  another  generation  Poseidon,  or  Neptune. 

The  early  gods  are  symbolical,  the  later  are  personal. 
The  turning-point  is  reached  when  Kronos,  Time,  arrives. 
The  children  of  Time  and  Earth  are  no  longer  vast  shad¬ 
owy  abstractions,  but  become  historical  characters,  with 
biographies  and  personal  qualities.  Neither  Time  nor 
History  existed  before  Homer ;  when  Time  came,  History 
began. 

The  three  male  children  of  Time  were  Zeus,  Poseidon, 
and  Hades ;  representing  the  three  dimensions  of  space, 
Height,  Breadth,  and  Depth ;  Heaven,  Ocean,  and  Hell. 
They  also  represented  the  threefold  progress  of  the  human 
soul :  its  aspiration  and  ascent  to  what  is  noble  and  good, 
its  descent  to  what  is  profound,  and  its  sympathy  with  all 
that  is  various :  in  other  words,  its  religion,  its  intelligence, 
and  its  affection. 

The  fable  of  Time  devouring  his  children,  and  then 
reproducing  them,  evidently  means  the  vicissitudes  of 
customs  and  the  departure  and  return  of  fashions.  What- 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


277 


ever  is  born  must  die ;  but  wliat  lias  been  will  be  again. 
That  Eros,  Love,  should  be  at  the  origin  of  things  from 
chaos,  indicates  the  primeval  attraction  with  which  the 
order  of  the  universe  begins.  The  mutilation  of  Uranos, 
Heaven,  so  that  he  ceased  to  produce  children,  suggests 
the  change  of  the  system  of  emanation,  by  which  the 
gods  descend  from  the  infinite,  into  that  of  evolution,  by 
which  they  arise  out  of  the  finite.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  end 
of  Asia,  and  the  beginning  of  Europe ;  for  emanation 
is  the  law  of  the  theologies  of  Asia,  evolution  that  of 
Europe.  Aphrodite,  Beauty,  was  the  last  child  of  the 
Heavens,  and  yet  born  from  the  Ocean.  Beauty  is  not 
the  daughter  of  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth,  but  of  the 
Heavens  and  the  Ocean.  The  lights  and  shadows  of 
the  sky,  the  tints  of  dawn,  the  tenderness  of  clouds, 
unite  with  the  toss  and  curve  of  the  wave  in  creating 
Beauty.  The  beauty  of  outline  appears  in  the  sea,  that 
of  light  and  color  in  the  sky.* 

§  4.  The  Gods  of  the  Poets. 

Herodotus  says  (II.  53),  “  I  am  of  opinion  that  Hesiod 
and  Homer  lived  four  hundred  years  before  my  time,  and 
not  more,  and  these  were  they  who  framed  a  theogony  for 
the  Greeks,  and  gave  names  to  the  gods,  and  assigned  to 
them  honors  and  arts,  and  declared  their  several  forms. 
But  the  poets,  said  to  be  before  them,  in  my  opinion, 
were  after  them.” 

That  two  poets  should  create  a  theology  and  a  worship 
for  a  great  people,  and  so  unite  its  separate  tribes  into  a 

*  Rev.  G.  W.  Cox  (A  Manual  of  Mythology,  London,  1867.  The 
Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations,  London,  18/0)  has  shown  much 
ingenuity  in  his  efforts  to  trace  the  myths  and  legends  of  the  Greeks, 
Germans,  etc.,  back  to  some  original  metaphors  in  the  old  Vedic  speech, 
most  of  which  relate  to  the  movements  of  the  sun,  and  the  phenomena 
of  the  heavens.  It  seems  probable  that  he  carries  this  too  far  ;  foi  w  hy 
cannot  later  ages  originate  myths  as  well  as  the  earlier  ?  The  analogies 
by  which  he  seeks  to  approximate  Greek,  Scandinavian,  and  Hindoo 
stories  are  often  fanciful.  And  the  sun  plays  so  overwhelming  a  part  in. 
this  drama,  that  it  reminds  one  of  the  picture  in  “  Hermann  and  Doro¬ 
thea,”  of  the  traveller  who  looked  at  the  sun  till  he  could  see  nothing 

cls6« 

**  Schweben  siehet  ihr  Bild,  wohin  er  die  Blicke  nur  wendet.” 


278 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


commonwealth  of  united  states,  seems  to  modern  minds 
an  absurdity.  But  the  poets  of  Greece  were  its  prophets. 
They  received,  intensified,  concentrated,  the  tendencies  of 
thought  already  in  the  air.  All  the  drift  was  toward  Pan- 
Hellenic  worship  and  to  a  humanized  theology,  when 
the  Homeric  writers  sang  their  song. 

The  Greeks  must  be  conceived  of  as  a  nation  of  poets ; 
hence  all  their  mythology  was  poetry.  Poetry  was  their 
life  and  joy,  written  or  unwritten,  sung  or  spoken. 
They  were  poets  in  the  deeper  sense  of  the  word ;  not 
by  writing  verses,  but  by  looking  at  all  nature  and  all 
life  from  its  poetic  side.  Their  exquisite  mythology 
arose  out  of  these  spontaneous  instincts.  The  tendency 
of  the  Greek  mind  was  to  vitalize  and  harmonize  nature.* 

All  the  plienoniena  of  nature,  all  the  powers  of  the 
human  soul,  and  all  the  events  of  life,  became  a  marvel¬ 
lous  tissue  of  divine  story.  They  walked  the  earth,  sur¬ 
rounded  and  overshadowed  by  heavenly  attendants  and 
supernatural  powers.  But  a  striking  peculiarity  of  this 
immense  spiritualism  was  that  it  was  almost  without 
superstition.  Their  gods  were  not  their  terror,  but  their 
delight.  Even  the  great  gods  of  Olympus  were  around 
them  as  invisible  companions.  Fate  itself,  the  dark  Moira, 
supreme  power,  mistress  of  gods  and  men,  was  met  man¬ 
fully  and  not  timorously.  So  strong  was  the  human  ele¬ 
ment,  the  sense  of  personal  dignity  and  freedom,  that  the 
Greek  lived  in  the  midst  of  a  supernatural  world  on  equal 
terms. 

No  doubt  the  elements  of  mythology  are  in  all  nations 
the  same,  consisting  of  the  facts  of  nature  and  the  facts 
of  life.  The  heavens  and  the  earth,  day  and  night,  the 
sun  and  moon,  storms,  fire,  ocean,  and  rivers,  love  and 
beauty,  life  and  progress,  war,  wisdom,  doom,  and  chance, 
—  these,  among  all  nations,  supply  the  material  for  myths. 
But  while,  with  some  races,  these  powers  remain  solemn 
abstractions,  above  and  behind  nature,  among  the  Greeks 
they  descended  into  nature  and  turned  to  poetry,  illumi¬ 
nating  all  of  life. 

*  See  Le  Sentiment  Religieux  en  Grece,  d’Homkre  a  Eschyle,  par 
Jules  Girard,  Paris,  1869. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


279 


Let  us  imagine  a  Greek,  possessed  by  the  spirit  of  his 
nation  and  acquainted  with  its  legendary  history,  visiting 
the  holy  places  of  that  ideal  land.  On  the  northern 
boundary  he  sees  the  towering  summit  of  Olympus,  on 
whose  solemn  heights  reside  the  twelve  great  gods  of  his 
country.  When  the  dark  clouds  roll  along  its  defiles, 
and  the  lightning  flashes  from  their  black  depths,  it  is 
Zeus,  striking  with  his  thunderbolt  some  impious  offender. 
There  was  held  the  great  council  of  the  Immortals.  When 
the  ocean  was  quiet,  Poseidon  had  left  it  to  visit  Olym¬ 
pus.  There  came  Hephsestos,  quitting  his  subterranean 
fires  and  gloomy  laborers,  to  jest  and  be  jested  with,  sit¬ 
ting  by  his  beautiful  queen.  There,  while  the  sun 
hung  motionless  in  mid-heaven,  Apollo  descended  from 
his  burning  chariot  to  join  the  feast.  Artemis  and  De¬ 
meter  came  from  the  woods  and  fields  to  unite  in  the  high 
assembly,  and  war  was  suspended  while  Ares  made  love 
to  the  goddess  of  Beauty.  The  Greek  looked  at  Parnas¬ 
sus,  “  soaring  snow-clad  through  its  native  sky,”  with  its 
Delphic  cave  and  its  Castalian  fount,  or  at  the  neighbor¬ 
ing  summits  of  Helicon,  where  Pegasus  struck  his  hoof 
and  Hippocrene  gushed  forth,  and  believed  that  hidden 
in  these  sunny  woods  might  perhaps  be  found  the  mqses 
who  inspired  Herodotus,  Homer,  iEschylus,  and  Pindar. 
He  could  go  nowhere  without  finding  some  spot  over 
which  hung  the  charm  of  romantic  or  tender  association. 
Within  every  brook  was  hidden  a  Naiad ;  by  the  side  of 
every  tree  lurked  a  Dryad ;  if  you  listen,  you  may  hear 
the  Oreads  calling  among  the  mountains ;  if  you  come 
cautiously  around  that  bending  hill,  you  may  catch  a 
glimpse  of  the  great  Pan  himself.  When  the  moonlight 
showers  filled  the  forests  with  a  magical  light,  one  might 
see  the  untouched  Artemis  gliding  rapidly  among  the 
mossy  trunks.  Beneath,  in  the  deep  abysses  of  earth, 
reigned  the  gloomy  Pluto  with  the  sad  Persephone,  home¬ 
sick  for  the  upper  air.  By  the  sea-shore  Proteus  wound 
his  horn,  the  Sirens  sang  their  fatal  song  among  the  rocks, 
'  the  Nereids  and  Oceanides  gleamed  beneath  the  green 
waters,  the  vast  Amphitrite  stretched  her  wide-embracing 
arms,  and  Thetis  with  her  water-nymphs  lived  in  their 


280 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


submarine  grottos.  When  the  morning  dawned,  Eos,  or 
Aurora,  went  before  the  chariot  of  the  Sun,  dropping  flow¬ 
ers  upon  the  earth.  Every  breeze  which  stirred  the  tree- 
tops  was  a  god,  going  on  some  errand  for  iEolus.  The  joy 
of  inspired  thought  was  breathed  into  the  soul  by  Phoe¬ 
bus  ;  the  genial  glow  of  life,  the  festal  mirth,  and  the  glad 
revel  were  the  gift  of  Dionysos.  All  nature  was  alive 
with  some  touch  of  a  divine  presence.  So,  too,  every  spot 
of  Hellas  was  made  interesting  by  some  legend  of  Hercu¬ 
les,  of  Theseus,  of  Prometheus,  of  the  great  Dioscuri,  of 
Minos,  or  Daedalus,  of  Jason  and  the  Argonauts.  The 
Greeks  extended  their  own  bright  life  backward  through 
history,  and  upward  through  heroes  and  demigods  to  Zeus 
himself. 

In  Homer,  the  gods  are  very  human.  They  have 
few  traits  of  divinity,  scarcely  of  dignity.  Their  ridicule 
of  Yulcan  is  certainly  coarse;  the  threats  of  Zeus  are 
brutal. 

As  a  family,  they  live  together  on  Olympus,  feasting, 
talking,  making  love,  making  war,  deceiving  each  other, 
angry,  and  reconciled.  They  feed  on  nectar  and  ambrosia, 
which  makes  them  immortal ;  just  as  the  Amrita  makes 
the  Hindoo  gods  so.  So  in  the  Iliad  we  see  them  at 
their  feast,  with  Yulcan  handing  each  the  cup,  pouring 
out  nectar  for  them  all.  ‘'And  then  inextinguishable 
laughter  arose  among  the  immortal  gods,  when  they  saw 
Yulcan  bustling  through  the  mansion.  So  they  feasted 
all  day  till  sundown ;  nor  did  the  soul  want  anything  of 
the  equal  feast,  nor  of  the  beautiful  harp  which  Apollo 
held,  nor  of  the  Muses,  who  accompanied  him,  responding 
in  turn  with  delicious  voice.” 

“  But  when  the  splendid  light  of  the  sun  was  sunk, 
they  retired  to  repose,  each  one  to  his  house,  which  re¬ 
nowned  Yulcan,  lame  of  both  legs,  had  built.  But  Olym¬ 
pian  Zeus  went  to  his  couch,  and  laid  down  to  rest  beside 
white-armed  Here.”  * 

Or  sometimes  they  fight  together,  or  with  mortals; 
instances  of  both  appear  in  the  Iliad.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  they  do  not  appear  to  advantage  in  these 

*  Iliad,  Book  I.  v.  600. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


281 


conflicts.  They  usually  get  the  worst  of  it,  and  go  hack 
to  Zeus  to  complain.  In  the  Twenty-first  Book  they 
fight  together,  Ares  against  Athene,  Athene  also  against 
his  helper,  Aphrodite ;  Poseidon  and  Her6  against  Apollo 
and  Artemis,  Vulcan  against  the  river  god,  Seaman der. 
Ares  called  Athene  impudent,  and  threatened  to  chastise 
her.  She  seized  a  stone  and  struck  him  on.  the  neck,  and 
relaxed  his  knees.  Seven  acres  he  covered  falling,  and 
his  back  was  defiled  with  dust;  but  Pallas- Athene  jeered 
at  him ;  and  when  Aphrodite  led  him  away  groaning 
frequently,  Pallas-Athene  sprang  after,  and  smote  her 
with  her  hand,  dissolving  her  knees  and  dear  heart. 
Apollo  was  afraid  of  Poseidon,  and  declined  fighting  with 
him  when  challenged,  for  which  Artemis  rebuked  him. 
On  this,  Here  tells  her  that  she  can  kill  stags  on  the 
mountains,  but  is  afraid  to  fight  with  her  betters,  and  then 
proceeds  to  punish  her,  holding  both  the  hands  of  Artemis 
in  one  of  hers,  and  beating  her  over  the  head  with  her 
own  bow.  A  disgraceful  scene  altogether,  we  must  con¬ 
fess,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  Plato  was  scandalized 
such  stories. 

Thus  purely  human  were  these  gods ;  spending  the 
summer’s  day  in  feasting  beneath  the  open  sky ;  going 
home  at  sundown  to  sleep,  like  a  parcel  of  great  boys  and 
girls.  They  are  immortal  indeed,  and  can  make  men  so 
sometimes,  but  cannot  always  prevent  the  death  of  a 
favorite.  Above  them  all  broods  a  terrible  power,  might¬ 
ier  than  themselves,  the  dark  Fate  and  irresistible  Neces¬ 
sity.  For,  after  all,  as  human  gods  they  were  like  men, 
subject  to  the  laws  of  nature.  Yet  as  men,  they  are  free, 
and  in  the  feeling  of  their  freedom  sometimes  resist  and 
defy  fate. 

The  Homeric  gods  move  through  the  air  like  birds,  like 
wind,  like  lightning.  They  are  stronger  than  men,  and 
larger.  Ares,  overthrown  by  Pallas,  covers  seven  acres  of 
ground;  when  wounded  by  Diomedes  he  bellowed  as 
loud  as  nine  or  ten  thousand  men,  says  the  accurate 
Homer.  The  bodies  of  the  gods,  inexpressibly  beautiful, 
and  commonly  invisible,  are,  whenever  seen  by  men,  in 
an  aureola  of  light.  In  Homer,  Apollo  is  the  god  of 


282 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


archery,  prophecy,  and  music.  He  is  the  far-darter.  He 
shoots  his  arrows  at  the  Greeks,  because  his  prophet  had 
been  ill-treated.  “  He .  descended  from  Olympus,”  says 
Homer,  “  enraged  in  heart,  having  his  bow  and  quiver  on 
his  shoulders.  But  as  he  moved  the  shafts  rattled  on  the 
shoulders  of  him  enraged ;  and  he  went  onward  like  the 
night.  Then  he  sat  near  the  ships,  and  sent  an  arrow, 
and  dreadful  was  the  clangor  of  the  silver  bow.” 

Later  in  the  Iliad  he  appears  again,  defending  the 
Trojans  and  deceiving  Achilles.  In  the  Homeric  Hymn 
his  birth  on  Delos  is  sweetly  told ;  and  how,  when  he  was 
born,  Earth  smiled  around,  and  all  the  goddesses  shouted. 
Themis  fed  him  on  nectar  and  ambrosia ;  then  he  sprang 
up,  called  for  a  lyre  and  bow,  and  said  he  would  declare 
henceforth  to  men  the  will  of  J ove ;  and  Delos,  exulting, 
became  covered  with  flowers.* 

The  Second  Book  of  the  Iliad  begins  thus :  “  The 
rest,  both  gods  and  horse-arraying  men,  slept  all  the 
night;  but  Jove  sweet  sleep  possessed  not;  but  he  pon¬ 
dered  how  he  might  destroy  many  at  the  Greek  ships,  and 
honor  Achilles.  But  this  device  appeared  best  to  his 
mind,  to  send  a  fatal  dream  to  Agamemnon.  And  he  said, 
‘  Haste,  pernicious  dream,  to  the  swift  ships,  and  bid 
Agamemnon  arm  the  Acliseans  to  take  wide-streeted  Troy, 
since  Juno  has  persuaded  all  the  gods  to  her  will.’  ” 

This  was  simply  a  lie,  sent  for  the  destruction  of  the 
Greeks. 

In  the  First  Book,  Jupiter  complains  to  Thetis  that  Juno 
is  always  scolding  him,  and  good  right  had  she  to  do  so. 
Presently  she  comes  in  and  accuses  him  of  plotting  some¬ 
thing  secretly  with  Thetis,  and  never  letting  her  know 
his  plans.  He  answers  her  by  accusations  of  perversity : 
"  Thou  art  always  suspecting ;  but  thou  shalt  produce  no 
effect,  but  be  further  from  my  heart.”  He  then  is  so  un¬ 
gen  tlemanly  as  to  threaten  her  with  corporal  punishment. 
The  gods  murmur ;  but  Vulcan  interposes  as  a  peace¬ 
maker,  saying,  “  There  will  be  no  enjoyment  in  our  de¬ 
lightful  banquet  if  you  twain  thus  contend.”  Then  he 

*  Margaret  Fuller  used  to  distinguish  Apollo  and  Bacchus  as  Genius 
and  Geniality. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


283 

1 

arose  and  placed  the  double  cup  in  her  hands  and  said, 
“  Be  patient,  my  mother,  lest  I  again  behold  thee  beaten, 
and  cannot  help  thee.” 

He  here  refers  to  a  time  when  J upiter  hung  his  wife  up 
in  mid-heaven  with  anvils  tied  to  her  heels ;  and  when 
Vulcan  untied  them  he  was  pitched  from  Olympus  down 
into  the  island  of  Lemnos,  whence  came  his  lameness. 
A  rude  and  brutal  head  of  a  household  was  the  poetic 
Zeus. 

No  doubt  other  and  much  .more  sublime  views  of  the 
gods  are  to  be  found  in  Homer.  Thus  (II.  XV.  80)  he 
compares  the  motion  of  Juno  to  the  rapid  thought  of 
a  traveller,  who,  having  visited  many  countries,  says,  “  I 
was  here,”  “  I  was  there.”  Such  also  is  the  description 
(II.  XIII.  17)  of  Neptune  descending  from  the  top  of 
Samothrace,  with  the  hills  and  forests  trembling  beneath 
his  immortal  feet.  Infinite  power,  infinite  faculty,  the 
gods  of  Homer  possessed;  but  these  were  only  human 
faculty  and  power  pushed  to  the  utmost.  Nothing  is 
more  beautiful  than  the  description  of  the  sleep  of  Jupiter 
and  Juno,  “  imparadised  in  each  other’s  arms  ”  (II.  XIV. 
350),  while  the  divine  earth  produced  beneath  them  a  bed 
of  flowers,  softly  lifting  them  from  the  ground.  But  the 
picture  is  eminently  human ;  quite  as  much  so  as  that 
which  Milton  has  imitated  from  it. 

After  Homer  and  Hesiod,  among  the  Greek  poets, 
come  the  lyrists.  Callinus,  the  Ephesian,  made  a  reli¬ 
gion  of  patriotism.  Tyrtaeus  (b.  c.  660),  somewhat  later, 
of  Sparta,  was  devoted  to  the  same  theme.  Pindar, 
the  Theban,  began  his  career  (b.  c.  494)  in  the  time  of 
the  conquests  of  Darius,  and  composed  one  of  his  Py¬ 
thian  odes  in  the  year  of  the  battle  of  Marathon.  He 
taught  a  divine  retribution  on  good  and  evil ;  taught  that 
“  the  bitterest  end  awaits  the  pleasure  that  is  contrary  to 
right,”  *  taught  moderation,  and  that  “  a  man  should  al¬ 
ways  keep  in  view  the  bounds  and  limits  of  things.”-)* 
He  declared  that  “  Law  was  the  ruler  of  gods  and  men.” 
Moreover,  he  proclaimed  that  gods  and  men  were  of  one 

family,  and  though  the  gods  were  far  higher,  yet  that 

_ _  . 

I*  Isthmian,  V I.  t  Pythian,  II. 


284 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


something  divine  was  in  all  men.*  And  in  a  famous 
fragment  (quoted  by  Bunsen  *f*)  he  calls  mankind  the  ma¬ 
jestic  offspring  of  earth ;  mankind,  “  a  gentle  race,  beloved 
of  heaven.” 

The  tragic  poet,  iEschylus,  is  a  figure  like  that  of  Mi¬ 
chael  Angelo  in  Italian  art,  grand,  sombre,  and  possessed 
by  his  ideas.  The  one  which  rules  him  and  runs  darkly 
through  all  his  tragedies  is  the  supreme  power  of  Nemesis, 
the  terrible  destiny  which  is  behind  and  above  gods 
and  men.  The  favorite  theme  of  Greek  tragedy  is  the 
conflict  of  fate  and  freedom,  of  the  inflexible  laws  of 
nature  with  the  passionate  longings  of  man,  of  “  the  emer¬ 
gency  of  the  case  with  the  despotism  of  the  rule.”  This 
conflict  appears  most  vividly  in  the  story  of  Prome¬ 
theus,  or  Forethought;  he,  “ whose  godlike  crime  was  to 
be  kind  ” ;  he  who  resisted  the  torments  and  terrors  of 
Zeus,  relying  on  his  own  fierce  mind. J  In  this  respect, 
Prometheus  in  his  suffering  is  like  J ob  in  his  sufferings. 
Each  refuses  to  say  he  is  wrong,  merely  to  pacify  God, 
when  he  does  not  see  that  he  is  wrong.  As  Prometheus 
maintains  his  inflexible  purpose,  so  Job  holds  fast  his 
integrity. 

Sophocles  is  the  most  devout  of  the  Greek  tragedians,  and 
reverence  for  the  gods  is  constantly  enjoined  in  his  trage¬ 
dies.  One  striking  passage  is  where  Antigone  is  asked  if  she 
had  disobeyed  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  replies,  “Yes; 
for  they  were  not  the  laws  of  God.  They  did  not  pro¬ 
ceed  from  Justice,  who  dwells  with  the  Immortals.  Nor 
dared  I,  in  obeying  the  laws  of  mortal  man,  disobey  those 
of  the  undying  gods.  For  the  gods  live  from  eternity, 
and  their  beginning  no  man  knows.  I  know  that  I  must 
die  for  this  offence,  and  I  die  willingly.  I  must  have 
died  at  some  time,  and  a  premature  death  I  account  a  gain, 
as  finishing  a  life  filled  with  sorrows.”  §  This  argument 
reminds  us  of  the  higher-law  discussions  of  the  anti¬ 
slavery  conflict,  and  the  religious  defiance  of  the  fugitive 
slave  law  by  all  honest  men. 

*  Nemean,  VI. 

t  God  in  History,  IV.  10. 

i  “  Atrocem  animam  Catonis.”  —  Horace. 

§  Antigone,  450. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


285 


Euripides  represents  the  reaction  against  the  religious 
tragedy.  His  is  the  anti-religious  tragedy.  It  is  a  sneer¬ 
ing  defiance  of  the  religious  sentiment,  a  direct  teach¬ 
ing  of  pessimism.  Bunsen  (“  God  in  History  ”)  goes  at 
length  into  the  proof  of  this  statement,  showing  that  in 
Euripides  the  theology  of  the  poets  encountered  and 
submitted  to  the  same  sceptical  reaction  which  followed 
in  philosophy  the  divine  teachings  of  Plato.*  After 
this  time  Greek  poetry  ceased  to  be  the  organ  of  Greek 
religion.  It  is  true  that  we  have  subsequent  outbreaks 
of  devout  song,  as  in  the  hymn  of  Cleanthes,  the  stoic, 
who  followed  Zeno  as  teacher  in  the  Porch  (b.  c.  260). 
Though  this  belongs  rather  to  philosophy  than  to  poetry, 
yet  on  account  of  its  truly  monotheistic  and  also  devout 
quality,  I  add  a  translation  here :  f  — 

Greatest  of  the  gods,  God  with  many  names,  God  ever-ruling  and  ruling 
all  things  ! 

Zeus,  origin  of  nature,  governing  the  universe  by  law, 

All  hail !  For  it  is  right  for  mortals  to  address  thee  ; 

Since  we  are  thy  offspring,  and  we  alone  of  all 

That  live  and  creep  on  earth  have  the  power  of  imitative  speech. 

Therefore  will  I  praise  thee,  and  hymn  forever  thy  power. 

Thee  the  wide  heaven,  which  surrounds  the  earth,  obeys  ; 

Following  where  thou  wilt,  willingly  obeying  thy  law. 

Thou  holdest  at  thy  service,  in  thy  mighty  hands, 

The  two-edged,  flaming,  immortal  thunderbolt, 

Before  whose  flash  all  nature  trembles. 

Thou  rulest  in  the  common  reason,  which  goes  through  all. 

And  appeal's  mingled  in  all  things,  great  or  small, 

Which,  filling  all  nature,  is  king  of  all  existences. 

Nor  without  thee,  0  Deity,  does  anything  happen  in  the  world, 

From  the  divine  ethereal  pole  to  the  great  ocean, 

Except  only  the  evil  preferred  by  the  senseless  wicked. 

But  thou  also  art  able  to  bring  to  order  that  which  is  chaotic, 

Giving  form  to  what  is  formless,  and  making  the  discordant  friendly  •, 

So  reducing  all  variety  to  unity,  and  even  making  good  out  of  evil. 

Thus,  through  all  nature  is  one  great  law, 

*  Yet,  even  in  Euripides,  we  meet  a  strain  like  that  (Hecuba,  Hne 
800),  which  we  may  render  as  follows  :  — 

“  For,  though  perhaps  we  may  be  helpless  slaves. 

Yet  are  the  gods  most  strong,  and  over  them 
Sits  Law  supreme.  The  gods  are  under  law,  — 

So  do  we  judge,  —  and  therefore  we  can  live 
While  right  and  wrong  stand  separate  forever.” 

+  See  the  original  in  Herder’s  Greek  text,  Hellenische  Blumenlese, 
and  in  Cudworth’s  Intellectual  System. 


286 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Which  only  the  wicked  seek  to  disobey,  — 

Poor  fools  !  who  long  for  happiness, 

But  will  not  see  nor  hear  the  divine  commands. 

•  •  •  •  • 

But  do  thou,  0  Zeus,  all-bestower,  cloud-compeller  ! 

Ruler  of  thunder  !  guard  men  from  sad  error. 

Father  !  dispel  the  clouds  of  the  soul,  and  let  us  follow 
The  laws  of  thy  great  and  just  reign  ! 

That  we  may  be  honored,  let  us  honor  thee  again, 

Chanting  thy  great  deeds,  as  is  proper  for  mortals. 

For  nothing  can  be  better  for  gods  or  men 

Than  to  adore  with  perpetual  hymns  the  law  common  to  all. 

The  result  of  our  investigation  thus  far  is,  that  beside 
all  the  polytheistic  and  anthropomorphic  tendencies  of 
the  old  religion,  there  yet  lingered  §,  faith  in  one  supreme 
God,  ruler  of  all  things.  This. is  the  general  opinion  of 
the  best  writers.  For  example,  Welcker  thus  speaks  of 
the  original  substance  of  Greek  religion  :  *  — 

o  o 

“In  the  remotest  period  of  Greek  antiquity,  we  meet  the 
words  6( os  and  Satfuov,  and  the  names  Zeo'y  and  K povlov ;  any¬ 
thing  older  than  which  is  not  to  be  found  in  this  religion. 
Accordingly,  the  gods  of  these  tribes  were  from  the  first  gen¬ 
erally,  if  not  universally,  heavenly  and  spiritual  beings.  Zeus 
was  the  immortal  king  of  heaven,  in  opposition  to  everything 
visible  and  temporal.  This  affords  us  a  permanent  back¬ 
ground  of  universal  ideas,  behind  all  special  conceptions  or  local 
appellations.  We  recognize  as  present  in  the  beginnings  of 
Greek  history  the  highest  mental  aspirations  belonging  to  man. 
We  can  thus  avoid  the  mistaken  doubts  concerning  this  reli¬ 
gion,  which  came  from  the  influence  of  the  subsequent  mani¬ 
festations,  going  back  to  the  deep  root  from  which  they  have 
sprung.  The  Divine  Spirit  has  always  been  manifested  in  the 
feelings  even  of  the  most  uncultivated  peoples.  Afterwards, 
in  trying  to  bring  this  feeling  into  distinct  consciousness,  the 
various  childish  conceptions  and  imperfect  views  of  religious 
things  arise.” 


§  5.  The  Gods  of  the  Artists. 

The  artists,  following  the  poets,  developed  still  further 
the  divinely  human  character  of  the  gods.  The  architects 
of  the  temples  gave,  in  their  pure  and  harmonious  forms, 
the  conception  of  religious  beauty  and  majesty.  Standing 

*  Welcker,  Grieschische  Gotterlehre,  §  25. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


287 


in  some  open  elevated  position,  their  snowy  surface  bathed 
in  sunshine,  they  stood  in  serene  strength,  the  types  of  a 
bright  and  joyful  religion.  A  superstitious  worship  seeks 
caves  and  darkness  ;  the  noble  majesty  of  the  Greek 
temples  said  plainly  that  they  belonged  to  a  religion  of 
light  and  peace. 

The  sculptor  worked  originally  in  company  with  the 
architect.  The  statues  were  meant  to  adorn  the  temples, 
the  temples  were  made  as  frames  and  pedestals  for  the 
statues.  The  marble  forms  stood  and  walked  on  the  pedi¬ 
ments  and  gave  life  to  the  frieze.  They  animated  the 
exterior,  or  sat,  calm  and  strong,  in  the  central  shrine. 

The  poets,  in  giving  a  moral  and  human  character  to 
the  gods,  never  quite  forgot  their  origin  as  powers  of 
nature.  Jupiter  Olympus  is  still  the  god  of  the  sky,  the 
thunderer.  Neptune  is  the  ruler  of  the  ocean,  the  earth- 
shaker.  Phoebus-Apollo  is  the  sun-god.  Artemis  is  the 
moonlight,  pure,  chaste,  and  cold.  But  the  sculptors 
finally  leave  behind  these  reminiscences,  and  in  their 
hands  the  deities  become  purely  moral  beings.  On  the 
brow  of  Jupiter  sits  a  majestic  calm  ;  he  is  no  angry 
wielder  of  the  thunderbolt,  but  the  gracious  and  powerful 
ruler  of  the  three  worlds.  This  conception  grew  up 
gradually,  until  it  was  fully  realized  by  Phidias  in  his 
statues  at  Olympia  and  Elis.  Tranquil  power  and  vic¬ 
torious  repose  appear  even  in  the  standing  Jupiters,  in 
which  last  the  god  appears  as  more  youthful  and  active. 

The  conception  of  Jupiter  by  Phidias  was  a  great  ad¬ 
vance  on  that  of  Homer.  He,  to  be  sure,  professed  to 
take  his  idea  from  the  famous  passage  of  the  Iliad  where 
Jove  shakes  his  ambrosial  curls  and  bends  his  awful 
brows  ;  and,  nodding,  shakes  heaven  and  earth.  That 
might  be  his  text,  but  the  sermon  which  he  preached  was 
far  higher  than  it.  This  was  the  great  statue  of  Jupiter, 
his  masterpiece,  made  of  ivory  and  gold  for  the  temple  at 
Olympia,  where  the  games  were  celebrated  by  the  united 
Hellenic  race.  These  famous  games,  which  occurred  every 
fifth  year,  lasting  five  days,  calling  together  all  Greece, 
were  to  this  race  what  the  Passover  was  to  the  Jewish 
nation,  sacred,  venerable,  blending  divine  worship  and 


288 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


human  joy.  These  games  were  a  chronology,  a  constitu¬ 
tion,  and  a  church  to  the  Pan-Hellenic  race.  All  epochs 
were  reckoned  from  them  ;  as  events  occurring  in  such 
or  such  an  Olympiad.  The  first  Olympiad  was  seven 
hundred  and  seventy-six  years  before  Christ ;  and  a 
large  part  of  our  present  knowledge  of  ancient  chrono¬ 
logy  depends  on  these  festivals.  They  bound  Greece 
together  as  by  a  constitution ;  no  persons  unless  of 
genuine  Hellenic  blood  being  allowed  to  contend  at  them, 
and  a  truce  being  proclaimed  for  all  Greece  while  they 
lasted. 

Here  at  Olympia,  while  the  games  continued,  all  Greece 
came  together ;  the  poets  and  historians  declaimed  their 
compositions  to  the  grand  audience  ;  opinions  were  inter¬ 
changed,  knowledge  communicated,  and  the  national  life 
received  both  stimulus  and  unity. 

And  here,  over  all,  presided  the  great  Jupiter  of  Phidias, 
within  a  Doric  temple,  sixty-eight  feet  high,  ninety-five 
wide,  and  two  hundred  and  thirty  long,  covered  with 
sculptures  of  Pentelic  marble.  The  god  was  seated  on  his 
throne,  made  of  gold,  ebony,  and  ivory,  studded  with  pre¬ 
cious  stones.  He  was  so  colossal  that,  though  seated,  his 
head  nearly  reached  the  roof,  and  it  seemed  as  if  he  would 
bear  it  away  if  he  rose.  There  sat  the  monarch,  his  head, 
neck,  breast,  and  arms  in  massive  proportions ;  the  lower 
part  of  the  body  veiled  in  a  flowing  mantle ;  bearing  in 
his  right  hand  a  statue  of  Victory,  in  his  left  a  sceptre 
with  his  eagle  on  the  top  ;  the  Hours,  the  Seasons,  and  the 
Graces  around  him ;  his  feet  on  the  mysterious  Sphinx ; 
and  on  his  face  that  marvellous  expression  of  blended 
majesty  and  sweetness,  which  we  know  not  only  by  the 
accounts  of  eyewitnesses,  but  by  the  numerous  imitations 
and  copies  in  marble  which  have  come  down  to  us.  One 
cannot  fail  to  see,  even  in  these  copies,  a  wonderful  ex¬ 
pression  of  power,  wisdom,  and  goodness.  The  head, 
with  leonine  locks  of  hair  and  thickly  rolling  beard, 
expresses  power ;  the  broad  brow  and  fixed  gaze  of  the 
eyes,  wisdom ;  while  the  sweet  smile  of  the  lips  indicates 
goodness.  The  throne  was  of  cedar,  ornamented  with 
gold,  ivory,  ebony,  and  precious  stones.  The  sceptre  was 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


289’ 


composed  of  every  kind  of  metal.  The  statue  was  forty 
feet  high,  on  a  pedestal  of  twelve  feet.  To  die  without 
having  seen  this  statue  was  regarded  by  the  Greeks  as 
almost  as  great  a  calamity  as  not  to  have  been  initiated 
into  the  mysteries* 

In  like  manner  the  poetic  conception  of  Apollo  was 
inferior  to  that  of  the  sculptor.  In  the  mind  of  the  latter 
Phoebus  is  not  merely  an  archer,  not  merely  a  prophet 
and  a  singer,  but  the  entire  manifestation  of  genius.  He 
is  inspiration ;  he  radiates  poetry,  music,  eloquence  from 
his  sublime  figure.  The  Phidian  Jupiter  is  lost  to  us, 
except  in  copies,  but  in  the  Belvedere  Apollo  we  see  how 
the  sculptor  could  interpret  the  highest  thought  of  the  Hel¬ 
lenic  mind.  He  who  visits  this  statue  by  night  in  the 
Vatican  Palace  at  Rome,  seeing  it  by  torchlight,  has,  per¬ 
haps,  the  most  wonderful  impression  left  on  his  imagina¬ 
tion  which  art  can  give.  After  passing  through  the  long 
galleries  of  the  Vatican,  where,  as  the  torches  advance, 
armies  of  statues  emerge  from  the  darkness  before  you, 
gaze  on  you  with  marble  countenance,  and  sink  back  into 
the  darkness  behind,  you  reach  at  last  the  small  circular 
hall  which  contains  the  Apollo.  The  effect  of  torchlight 
is  to  make  the  statue  seem  more  alive.  One  limb,  one 
feature,  one  expression  after  another,  is  brought  out  as  the 
torches  move ;  and  the  wonderful  form  becomes  at  last 
instinct  with  life.  Milman  has  described  the  statue  in  a 
few  glowing  but  unexaggerated  lines  :  — 

“For  mild  he  seemed,  as  in  Elysian  bowers, 

Wasting,  in  careless  ease,  the  joyous  hours  ; 

Haughty,  as  bards  have  sung,  with  princely  sway 
Curbing  the  fierce  flame-breathing  steeds  of  day  ; 

Beauteous,  as  vision  seen  in  dreamy  sleep 
By  holy  maid,  on  Delphi’s  haunted  steep.” 

•  •  •  •  • 

All,  all  divine  ;  no  struggling  muscle  glows, 

Through  heaving  vein  no  mantling  life-blood  flows, 

But,  animate  with  Deity  alone, 

In  deathless  glory  lives  the  breathing  stone.”  t 

In  such  a  statue  we  see  the  human  creative  genius 
idealized.  It  is  a  magnificent  representation  of  the  mind. 

*  Ottfried  Muller,  History  of  Greek  Art,  §§  115,  347. 

I  Oxford  Prize  Poems,  Poem  for  1812. 

13 


8 


290 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


of  Greece,  that  fountain  of  original  thought  from  which 
came  the  Songs  of  Homer  and  the  Dialogues  of  Plato, 
that  unfailing  source  of  history,  tragedy,  lyric  poetry, 
scientific  investigation.  In  the  Belvedere  Apollo  we  see 
expressed  at  once  the  genius  of  Homer,  Aristotle,  Herod¬ 
otus,  iEschylus,  Pindar,  Thales,  and  Plato. 

With  Apollo  is  associated  his  sister  Artemis,  or  Diana, 
another  exquisite  conception  of  Greek  thought.  Not  the 
cold  and  cruel  Diana  of  the  poets ;  not  she  who,  in  her 
prudish  anger,  turned  Actseon  into  a  stag,  who  slew  Orion, 
who  slew  the  children  of  Niobe,  and  demanded  the 
death  of  Iphigenia.  Very  different  is  the  beautiful 
Diana  of  the  sculptors,  the  Artemis,  or  untouched  one, 
chaste  as  moonlight,  a  wild  girl,  pure,  free,  noble ;  the 
ideal  of  youthful  womanhood,  who  can  share  with  man 
manly  exercises  and  open-air  sports,  and  add  to  manly 
strength  a  womanly  grace.  So  she  seems  in  the  statue ; 
in  swift  motion,  the  air  lifting  her  tunic  from  her  noble 
limbs,  while  she  draws  a  shaft  from  the  quiver  to  kill  a 
hind.  No  Greek  could  look  at  such  a  statue,  and  not 
learn  to  reverence  the  purity  and  nobleness  of  woman¬ 
hood. 

Pallas-Athene  was  the  goddess  of  all  the  liberal  arts 
and  sciences.  In  battle  she  proves  too  strong  for  Ares  or 
Mars,  as  scientific  war  is  always  too  strong  for  that  wild, 
furious  war  which  Mars  represented.  She  was  the  civil¬ 
izer  of  mankind.  Her  name  Pallas  means  “virgin,”  and 
her  name  Athene  was  supposed  to  be  the  same  as  the 
Egyptian  Neith,  reversed ;  though  modern  scholars  deny 
this  etymology. 

The  Parthenon,  standing  on  the  summit  of  Athens,  built 
of  white  marble,  was  surrounded  by  columns  34  feet  high. 
It  was  230  feet  long,  102  feet  wide,  and  68  high,  and  was 
perhaps  the  most  perfect  building  ever  raised  by  man. 
Every  part  of  its  exterior  was  adorned  with  Phidian 
sculpture  ;  and  within  stood  the  statue  of  Athene  herself, 
in  ivory  and  gold,  by  the  same  master  hand.  Another 
colossal  statue  of  the  great  goddess  stood  on  the  summit 
i of  the  Acropolis,  and  her  polished  brazen  helmet  and 
shield,  flashing  in  the  sun,  could  be  seen  far  out  at  sea  by 
vessels  approaching  Athens. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


291 


The  Greek  sculptors,  in  creating  these  wonderful  ideals, 
were  always  feeling  after  God ;  hut  for  God  incarnate, 
God  in  man.  They  sought  for  and  represented  each 
divine  element  in  human  nature.  They  were  prophets 
of  the  future  development  of  humanity.  They  showed 
how  man  is  a  partaker  of  the  divine  nature.  If  they 
humanized  Deity,  they  divinized  humanity. 

§  6.  The  Gods  of  the  Philosophers. 

The  problem  which  the  Greek  philosophers  set  them¬ 
selves  to  solve  was  the  origin  of  things.  As  we  have 
found  a  double  element  of  race  and  religion  running 
through  the  history  of  Greece,  so  we  find  a  similar  dualism 
in  its  philosophy.  An  element  of  realism  and  another  of 
idealism  are  in  opposition  until  the  time  of  Plato,  and 
are  first  reconciled  by  that  great  master  of  thought.  Ideal¬ 
ism  appears  in  the  Ionic  nature-philosophy;  idealism  in 
Orpliism,  the  schools  of  Pythagoras,  and  the  Eleatic  school 
of  Southern  Italy. 

Both  these  classes  of  thinkers  sought  for  some  central 
unity  beneath  the  outward  phenomena.  Thales  the  Mile¬ 
sian  (b.  c.  600)  said  it  was  water.  His  disciple,  Anaximan¬ 
der,  called  it  a  chaotic  matter,  containing  in  itself  a  motive- 
power  which  would  take  the  universe  through  successive 
creations  and  destructions.  His  successor,  Anaximenes, 
concluded  the  infinite  substance  to  be  air.  Heraclitus  of 
Ephesus  (b.  c.  500)  declared  it  to  be  fire ;  by  which  he 
meant,  not  physical  fire,  but  the  principle  of  antagonism. 
So,  by  water ,  Thales  must  have  intended  the  fluid  element 
in  things.  For  that  Thales  was  not  a  mere  materialist 
appears  from  the  sayings  which  have  been  reported  as 
coming  from  him,  such  as  this  :  “  Of  all  things,  the  oldest 
is  God ;  the  most  beautiful  is  the  world ;  the  swiftest  is 
thought  ;  the  wisest  is  time.”  Or  that  other,  that, 
“  Death  does  not  differ  at  all  from  life.”  Thales  also 
taught  that  a  Divine  power  was  in  all  things.  The  suc¬ 
cessor  of  Heraclitus,  Anaxagoras  (b.  c.  494),  first  distin¬ 
guished  God  from  the  world,  mind  from  matter,  leaving 
to  each  an  independent  existence. 


292- 


ten  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


While  the  Greek  colonies  in  Asia  Minor  developed, 
thus  the  Asiatic  form  of  philosophy,  the  colonies  in  Magna 
Grsecia  unfolded  the  Italian  or  ideal  side.  Of  these, 
Pythagoras  was  the  earliest  and  most  conspicuous.  Born 
at  Samos  (b.  c.  584),  he  was  a  contemporary  of  Thales  of 
Miletus.  He  taught  that  God  was  one ;  yet  not  outside 
of  the  world,  but  in  it,  wholly  in  every  part,  oversee¬ 
ing  the  beginnings  of  all  things  and  their  combinations.* 

The  head  of  the  Italian  school,  known  as  Eleatics,  was 
Xenophanes  (born  B.  c.  600),  who,  says  Zeller,' f  both  a 
philosopher  and  a  poet,  taught  first  of  all  a  perfect  mono¬ 
theism.  He  declared  God  to  be  the  one  and  all,  eternal, 
almighty,  and  perfect  being,  being  all  sight,  feeling,  and 
perception.  He  is  both  infinite  and  finite.  If  he  were 
only  finite,  he  could  not  be  ;  if  he  were  only  infinite,  he 
could  not  exist.  He  lives  in  eternity,  and  exists  in  time.J 

Parmenides,  scholar  and  successor  of  Xenophanes  at 
Elea,  taught  that  God,  as  pure  thought,  pervaded  all 
nature.  Empedocles  (about  B.  c.  460)  §  followed  Xeno¬ 
phanes,  though  introducing  a  certain  dualism  into  his 
physics.  In  theology  he  was  a  pure  monotheist,  declar¬ 
ing  God  to  be  the  Absolute  Being,  sufficient  for  himself, 
and  related  to  the  world  as  unity  to  variety,  or  love  to 
discord.  We  can  only  recognize  God  by  the  divine 
element  in  ourselves.  The  bad  is  what  is  separate  from 
God,  and  out  of  harmony  with  him. 

After  this  came  a  sceptical  movement,  in  wdiich  Gorgias, 
a  disciple  of  Empedocles  (b.  c.  404)  and  Protagoras  the 
Abderite,  taught  the  doctrine  of  nescience.  The  latter 
said :  “  Whether  there  are  gods  or  not  wre  cannot  say,  and 
life  is  too  short  to  find  out.”  ||  Prodicus  explained  religion 

*  ’0  fiev  debs  els  •  Kobro $  bb  ovk,  ws  nvbs  virovovcrtv,  (ktos  t as  bia.KO<Tp.T)- 
ceas  •  aXX’  ev  avrq.,  oXos  tv  oXy  rw  kuk\(p,  eTriCKOiros  7racras  7 evecreus  Kai 
Kpaaews  tG>v  o\iov.  —  Clem.  Alex.  Cohort,  ad  gentes. 

+  Monotheism  among  the  Greeks,  translated  in  the  Contemporary  Re¬ 
view,  March,  1867.  Victor  Cousin,  Fragments  de  Philosophie  Ancienne. 

X  Quotations  from  Aristotle,  in  Rixner,  I.  §  75. 

§  See  Rixner,  Zeller,  and  the  poem  of  Empedocles  on  the  Nature  of 
Things  (trepi  <pdaem),  especially  the  commencement  of  the  Third  Book. 

||  His  famous  doctrine,  that  “man  is  the  measure  of  all  things,”  meant 
that  there  is  nothing  true  but  that  which  appears  to  man  to  be  so 
at  any  moment.  He  taught,  as  we  should  now  say,  the  subjectivity  of 
knowledge. 


I 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


293 


as  founded  in  utility,  Critias  derived  it  from  statecraft. 
They  argued  that  if  religion  was  founded  in  human  nature, 
all  men  would  worship  the  same  gods.  This  view  be¬ 
came  popular  in  Greece  at  the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian 
War.  Euripides,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a  sceptic.  Those 
who  denied  the  popular  gods  were  persecuted  by  the 
Athenians,  but  the  sceptical  spirit  was  not  checked  by 
this  course.*  Anaxagoras  escaped  with  his  life  only 
through  the  powerful  protection  of  Pericles.  Protagoras 
was  sentenced  to  death,  and  his  writings  were  burned. 
Diogenes  was  denounced  as  an  atheist,  and  a  reward  of 
a  talent  was  offered  to  any  one  who  should  kill  him.  For 
an  unbelieving  age  is  apt  to  be  a  persecuting  one.  When 
the  kernel  of  religion  is  gone,  more  stress  is  laid  on  keep¬ 
ing  the  shell  untouched. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  these  dilapidated  opinions  that 
Socrates  came,  that  wonderful  phenomenon  in  human 
history.  A  marvellous  vision,  glorifying  humanity  !  He 
may  be  considered  as  having  created  the  science  of  ethics. 
He  first  taught  the  doctrine  of  divine  providence,  declar¬ 
ing  that  we  can  only  know  God  in  his  works.  He  placed 
religion  on  the  basis  of  humanity,  proclaiming  the  well¬ 
being  of  man  to  be  the  end  of  the  universe.  He  preferred 
the  study  of  final  causes  to  that  of  efficient  causes.  He 
did  not  deny  the  inferior  deities,  but  regarded  them  only 
as  we  regard  angels  and  archangels,  saints  and  prophets ; 
as  finite  beings,  above  man,  but  infinitely  below  the  Su¬ 
preme  Being.  Eeverence  for  such  beings  is  quite  consist¬ 
ent  with  the  purest  monotheism. 

In  Plato,  says  Rixner/f-  the  two  polar  tendencies  of 
Greek  philosophy  were  harmonized,  and  realism  and 
idealism  brought  into  accord.  The  school  of  realism 
recognized  time,  variety,  motion,  multiplicity,  and  nature ; 
but  lost  substance,  unity,  eternity,  and  spirit.  The  other, 
the  ideal  Eleatic  school,  recognized  unity,  but  lost  variety, 
saw  eternity,  but  ignored  time,  accepted  being,  but  omit¬ 
ted  life  and  movement. 


*  Zeller,  as  "before  cited, 
t  Geschichte  der  Philosophic. 


294 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  three  views  may  be  thus  compared  :  - 


Italian  Philosophy, 
or  Eleatic. 

The  One. 

Unity. 

Being. 

Pantheism. 

Substance. 


Plato. 

The  One  in  All. 
Unity  and  Variety. 
Life. 

Divine  in  Nature. 
Substance  and 
Manifestation. 


Ionian  or  Asiatic 
Atomic. 

The  All. 

Variety. 

Motion. 

Naturalism. 

Phenomena. 


The  philosophy  of  Plato  was  the  scientific  completion 
of  that  of  Socrates.  Socrates  took  his  intellectual  depart¬ 
ure  from  man,  and  inferred  nature  and  God.  Plato 
assumed  God,  and  inferred  nature  and  man.  He  made 
goodness  and  nature  godlike,  by  making  God  the  sub¬ 
stance  in  each.  His  was  a  divine  philosophy,  since  he 
referred  all  facts  theoretically  and  practically  to  God  as 
the  ground  of  their  being. 

The  style  of  Plato  singularly  combined  analysis  and 
synthesis,  exact  definition  with  poetic  life.  His  magnifi¬ 
cent  intellect  aimed  at  uniting  precision  in  details  with 
universal  comprehension.* 

Plato,  as  regards  his  method  of  thought,  was  a  strict  and 
determined  transcendentalist.  He  declared  philosophy  to 
be  the  science  of  unconditioned  being,  and  asserted  that 
this  was  known  to  the  soul  by  its  intuitive  reason,  which 
is  the  organ  of  all  philosophic  insight.  The  reason  per¬ 
ceives  substance,  the  understanding  only  phenomena. 
Being  (ro  di>),  which  is  the  reality  in  all  actuality,  is  in 
the  ideas  or  thoughts  of  God ;  and  nothing  exists  or 
appears  outwardly,  except  by  the  force  of  this  indwelling 
idea.  The  word  is  the  true  expression  of  the  nature  of 
every  object ;  for  each  has  its  divine  and  natural  name, 
beside  its  accidental  human  appellation.  Philosophy  is 
the  recollection  of  what  the  soul  has  seen  of  things  and 
their  names. 

The  life  and  essence  of  all  things  is  from  God.  Plato’s 


*  The  sentence  which  Plato  wrote  over  his  door,  ovSeis  ayeu/u^TpTjrot 
elalTO),  probably  means,  “  Let  no  one  enter  who  has  not  definite  thoughts.” 
So  Goethe  declared  that  outline  went  deepest  into  the  mysteries  of  nature. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


295 


idea  of  God  is  of  the  purest  and  highest  kind.  God  is  one, 
he  is  Spirit,  he  is  the  supreme  and  only  real  being,  he  is 
the  creator  of  all  things,  his  providence  is  over  all  events. 
He  avoids  pantheism  on  one  side,  by  making  God  a  dis¬ 
tinct  personal  intelligent  will;  and  polytheism  on  the 
other,  by  making  him  absolute,  and  therefore  one. 
Plato’s  theology  is  pure  theism.* 

Ackermann,  in  “  The  Christian  Element  in  Plato,”  f  says : 
The  Platonic  theology  is  strikingly  near  that  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  in  regard  to  God’s  being,  existence,  name,  and 
attributes.  As  regards  the  existence  of  God,  he  argues 
from  the  movements  of  nature  for  the  necessity  of  an 
original  principle  of  motion.  J  But  the  real  Platonic  faith 
in  God,  like  that  of  the  Bible,  rests  on  immediate  knowl¬ 
edge.  He  gives  no  definition  of  the  essence  of  God,  but 
says,§  “  To  find  the  Maker  and  Father  of  this  All  is  hard, 
and  having  found  him  it  is  impossible  to  utter  him.”  But 
the  idea  of  Goodness  is  the  best  expression,  as  is  also 
that  of  Being,  though  neither  is  adequate.  The  visible 
Sun  is  the  image  and  child  of  the  Good  Being.  Just  so 
the  Scripture  calls  God  the  Father  of  light.  Yet  the  idea 
of  God  was  the  object  and  aim  of  his  whole  philosophy ; 
therefore  he  calls  God  the  Beginning  and  the  End  ;  ||  and 
“  the  Measure  of  all  things,  much  more  than  man ,  as  some 
people  have  said  ”  (referring  to  Protagoras,  who  taught  that 
“  man  was  the  measure  of  all  things  ”).  So  even  Aristotle 
declared  that  “  since  God  is  the  ground  of  all  being,  the 
first  philosophy  is  theology  ” ;  and  Eusebius  mentions 
that  Plato  thought  that  no  one  could  understand  human 
things  who  did  not  first  look  at  divine  things ;  and  tells  a 
story  of  an  Indian  who  met  Socrates  in  Athens  and  asked 
him  how  he  must  begin  to  philosophize.  He  replied  that 
he  must  reflect  on  human  life ;  whereupon  the  Indian 
laughed  and  said  that  as  *long  as  one  did  not  understand 
divine  things  he  could  know  nothing  about  human  things. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Plato  was  a  monotheist,  and 

*  For  Proofs,  see  Ackermann,  Cudworth,  Tayler  Lewis,  and  the  New- 
Englander,  October,  1869. 

+  Page  28,  German  edition.  £  Laws,  X.  893. 

>  §  Timseus,  IX.  ||  Laws,  IY.  715. 


296 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


believed  in  one  God,  and  when  he  spoke  of  gods  in  the 
plural,  was  only  using  the  common  form  of  speech.  That 
many  educated  heathen  were  monotheists  has  been  suffi¬ 
ciently  proved ;  and  even  Augustine  admits  that  the  mere 
use  of  the  word  “  gods  ”  proved  nothing  against  it,  since 
the  Hebrew  Bible  said,  “the  God  of  gods  has  spoken” 

Aristotle  (b.  c.  384),  the  first  philologian  and  natural¬ 
ist  of  antiquity,  scholar  of  Plato,  called  “the  Scribe  of 
Nature,”  and  “a  reversed  Plato,”  differing  diametrically 
from  his  master  in  his  methods,  arrived  at  nearly  the 
same  theological  result.  He  taught  that  there  were  first 
truths,  known  by  their  own  evidence.  He  comprised  all 
notions  of  existence  in  that  of  the  koo-^os,  in  which  were 
the  two  spheres  of  the  earthly  and  heavenly.  The 
earthly  sphere  contained  the  changeable  in  the  transient ; 
the  heavenly  sphere  contained  the  changeable  in  the  per¬ 
manent.  Above  both  spheres  is  God,  who  is  unchangea¬ 
ble,  permanent,  and  unalterable.  Aristotle,  however,  omits 
God  as  Providence,  and  conceives  him  less  personally 
than  is  done  by  Plato. 

In  the  Stoical  system,  theism  becomes  pantheism.* 
There  is  one  Being,  who  is  the  substance  of  all  things, 
from  whom  the  universe  flows  forth,  and  into  whom  it 
returns  in  regular  cycles. 

Zeller  sums  up  his  statements  on  this  point  thus : 
“  From  all  that  has  been  said  it  appears  that  the  Stoics  did 
not  think  of  God  and  the  world  as  different  beings.  Their 
system  was  therefore  strictly  pantheistic.  The  sum  of  all 
real  existence  is  originally  contained  in  God,  who  is  at 
once  universal  matter  and  the  creative  force  which  fash¬ 
ions  matter  into  the  particular  materials  of  which  things 
are  made.  We  can,  therefore,  think  of  nothing  which  is 
not  either  God  or  a  manifestation  of  God.  In  point  of 
being,  God  and  the  world  are  the  same,  the  two  concep¬ 
tions  being  declared  by  the  Stoics  to  be  absolutely  iden¬ 
tical.” 

The  Stoic  philosophy  was  materialism  as  regards  the 

*  Zeller,  as  above.  Also  Zeller,  “Stoics,  Epicureans,  and  Sceptics,’1 
translated  by  Reicliel.  London  :  Longmans.  1870. 

t  Stoics,  Epicureans  and  Sceptics,  p.  140. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


297 


nature  of  things,  and  necessity  as  regards  the  nature  of  the 
human  will.  The  Stoics  denied  the  everlasting  existence 
of  souls  as  individuals,  believing  that  at  the  end  of  a  cer¬ 
tain  cycle  they  would  be  resolved  into  the  Divine  Being. 
Nevertheless,  till  that  period  arrives,  they  conceived  the 
soul  as  existing  in  a  future  state  higher  and  better  than 
this.  Seneca  calls  the  day  of  death  the  birthday  into 
this  better  world.  In  that  world  there  would  be  a  judg¬ 
ment  on  the  conduct  and  character  of  each  one ;  there 
friends  would  recognize  each  other,  and  renew  their  friend¬ 
ship  and  society. 

While  the  Epicureans  considered  religion  in  all  its 
usual  forms  to  be  a  curse  to  mankind,  while  they  believed 
it  impious  to  accept  the  popular  opinions  concerning  the 
gods,  while  they  denied  any  Divine  Providence  or  care 
for  man,  while  they  rejected  prayer,  prophecy,  divination, 
and  regarded  fear  as  the  foundation  of  religion,  they  yet 
believed,  as  their  master  Epicurus  had  believed,  in  the  ex¬ 
istence  of  the  immortal  gods.  These  beings  he  regarded 
as  possessing  all  human  attributes,  except  those  of  weak¬ 
ness  and  pain.  They  are  immortal  and  perfectly  happy ; 
exempt  from  disease  and  change,  living  in  celestial  dwell¬ 
ings,  clothed  with  bodies  of  a  higher  kind  than  ours,  they 
converse  together  in  a  sweet  society  of  peace  and  content. 

Such  were  the  principal  theological  views  of  the  Greek 
philosophers.  With  the  exception  of  the  last,  and  that  of 
the  Sceptics,  they  were  either  monotheistic  or  consistent 
with  monotheism.  They  were,  on  the  whole,  far  higher 
than  the  legends  of  the  poets  or  the  visions  of  the  artists. 
They  were,  as  the  Christian  Fathers  were  fond  of  saying,  a 
preparation  for  Christianity.  No  doubt  one  cause  of  the 
success  of  this  monotheistic  religion  among  the  Greek¬ 
speaking  nations  was  that  Greek  philosophy  had  under¬ 
mined  faith  in  Greek  polytheism. 

This  we  shall  consider  in  another  section. 

§  7.  The  Worship  of  Greece . 

The  public  worship  of  Greece,  as  of  other  ancient  na¬ 
tions,  consisted  of  sacrifices,  prayers,  and  public  festivals. 


298 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  sacrifices  were  for  victories  over  tlieir  enemies,  for 
plentiful  harvests,  to  avert  the  anger  of  some  offended 
deity,  for  success  in  any  enterprise,  and  those  specially 
commanded  by  the  oracles. 

In  the  earliest  times  fruits  and  plants  were  all  that 
were  offered.  Afterward  the  sacrifices  were  libations, 
incense,  and  victims.  The  libation  consisted  of  a  cup 
brimming  with  wine,  which  was  emptied  upon  the  altars. 
The  incense,  at  first,  was  merely  fragrant  leaves  or  wood, 
burnt  upon  the  altar;  afterward  myrrh  and  frankin¬ 
cense  were  used.  The  victims  were  sheep,  oxen,  or  other 
animals.  To  Hecate  they  offered  a  dog,  to  Venus  a  dove, 
to  Mars  some  wild  animal,  to  Ceres  the  sow,  because  it 
rooted  up  the  corn.  But  it  was  forbidden  to  sacrifice  the 
ploughing  ox.  The  sacrifices  of  men,  which  were  com¬ 
mon  among  barbarous  nations,  were  very  rare  in  Greece. 

On  great  occasions  large  sacrifices  were  offered  of  nu¬ 
merous  victims,  —  as  the  hecatomb,  which  means  a  hun¬ 
dred  oxen.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  they  had  a  vessel 
of  holy  water  at  the  entrance  of  the  temples,  consecrated 
by  putting  into  it  a  burning  torch  from  the  altar,  with 
which  or  with  a  branch  of  laurel  the  worshippers  were 
sprinkled  on  entering.  The  worshippers  were  also  ex¬ 
pected  to  wash  their  bodies,  or  at  least  their  hands  and 
feet,  before  going  into  the  temple  ;  a  custom  common  also 
amon"  the  Jews  and  other  nations.  So  Ezekiel  savs  :  “  I 

O 

will  sprinkle  you  with  clean  water  and  you  shall  be 
clean.”  And  the  Apostle  Paul  says,  in  allusion  to  this 
custom :  “  Let  us  draw  near,  having  our  hearts  sprinkled 
from  an  evil  conscience,  and  our  bodies  washed  with  pure 
water.” 

All  these  customs  had  a  natural  origin.  The  natural 
offering  to  the  gods  is  that  which  we  like  best  ourselves. 
The  Greeks,  eminently  a  social  people,  in  the  enjoyment 
of  their  feasts,  wished  to  give  a  part  of  everything  to 
the  gods.  Loving  wine,  perfumes,  and  animal  food,  they 
offered  these.  As  it  was  proper  to  wash  before  feasting 
with  each  other,  it  seemed  only  proper  to  do  the  same 
before  offering  the  feast  to  the  gods. 

The  essential  part  of  the  sacrifice  was  catching  and 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


299 


pouring  out  the  blood  of  the  victim ;  for,  in  the  view  of 
the  ancients,  blood  was  the  seat  of  life.  Part  of  the  vic¬ 
tim  was  burned,  and  this  was  the  portion  supposed  to  be 
consumed  by  the  god.  Another  part  was  eaten  by  the 
worshippers,  who  thus  sat  at  table  with  the  deity  as  his 
friends  and  companions.  The  joyful  character  of  Greek 
worship  also  appeared  in  the  use  of  garlands  of  flowers, 
religious  dances  and  songs. 

All  the  festivals  of  the  Greeks  were  religious.  Some 
were  of  the  seasons,  as  one  in  February  to  Zeus,  the 
giver  of  good  weather;  and  another  in  November  to 
Zeus,  the  god  of  storms.  There  were  festivals  in  honor 
of  the  plough,  of  the  threshing-floor ;  festivals  commem¬ 
orating  the  victories  at  Marathon,  Salamis,  etc. ;  of  the 
restoration  of  democracy  by  Thrasybulus ;  feasts  of  the 
clothing  of  the  images,  on  which  occasion  it  was  not 
lawful  to  work ;  feasts  in  commemoration  of  those  who 
perished  in  the  flood  of  Deucalion;  feasts  of  nurses, 
feasts  of  youth,  of  women,  of  trades.  Then  there  were 
the  great  national  festivals,  celebrated  every  four  years  at 
Olympia  and  Delphi,  and  every  three  and  five  years  at 
Nemea  and  the  isthmus  of  Corinth.  The  Panathenaeic 
festival  at  Athens  was  held  every  five  years  in  honor  of 
Athene,  with  magnificent  processions,  cavalcades  of  horse¬ 
men,  gymnastic  games,  military  dances,  recitations  of  the 
Homeric  poems,  and  competition  in  music.  On  the  frieze 
of  the  Parthenon  was  represented  by  the  scholars  of 
Phidias  the  procession  of  the  Peplos.  This  was  a  new 
dress  made  for  the  statue  of  Athene  by  young  girls  of 
Athens,  between  the  ages  of  seven  and  eleven  years. 
These  girls,  selected  at  a  special  ceremony,  lived  a  year 
on  the  Acropolis,  engaged  in  their  sacred  work,  and  fed 
on  a  special  diet.  Captives  were  liberated  on  this  occa¬ 
sion,  that  all  might  share  in  the  festival. 

Such  festivals  constituted  the  acme  of  Greek  life. 
They  were  celebrated  in  the  open  air  with  pomp  and 
splendor,  and  visitors  came  from  far  to  assist  on  these  oc¬ 
casions  Prizes  were  given  for  foot  and  chariot  races  ;  for 
boxing,  leaping,  music,  and  even  for  kissing.  The  tem¬ 
ples,  therefore,  were  not  intended  for  worship,  but  chiefly 


300 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


to  contain  the  image  of  the  god.  The  edict ,  or  adytum, 
was  small  and  often  dark  ;  hut  along  the  magnificent  por¬ 
tico  or  peristyle,  which  surrounded  the  four  sides  of  the 
Doric  temples,  the  splendid  processions  could  circulate  in 
full  view  of  the  multitude*  The  temple  was  therefore 
essentially  an  out-door  building,  with  its  beauty,  like  that 
of  a  flower,  exposed  to  light  and  air.  It  was  covered 
everywhere,  but  not  crowded,  with  sculpture,  which  was 
an  essential  part  of  the  building.  The  pediments,  the 
pedestals  on  the  roofs,  the  metopes  between  the  triglyphs, 
are  as  unmeaning  without  the  sculpture  as  a  picture-frame 
without  its  picture.  So  says  Mr.  Fergusson  ;  f  and  adds 
that,  without  question,  color  was  also  everywhere  used  as 
an  integral  part  of  the  structure. 

Priesthood  was  sometimes  hereditary,  but  was  not  con¬ 
fined  to  a  class.  Kings,  generals,  and  the  heads  of  a  family 
acted  as  priests  and  offered  sacrifices.  It  was  a  temporary 
office,  and  Plato  recommends  that  there  should  be  an 
annual  rotation,  no  man  acting  as  priest  for  more  than 
one  year.  Such  a  state  of  opinion  excludes  the  danger  of 
priestcraft,  and  is  opposed  to  all  hierarchal  pretensions. 
The  same,  however,  cannot  be  said  of  the  diviners  and 
soothsayers,  who  were  so  much  consulted,  and  whose 
opinions  determined  so  often  the  course  of  public  affairs. 
They  were  often  in  the  pay  of  ambitious  men.  Alcibiades 
had  augurs  and  oracles  devoted  to  his  interests,  who  could 
induce  the  Athenians  to  agree  to  such  a  course  as  he  de¬ 
sired.  For  the  Greeks  were  extremely  anxious  to  pene¬ 
trate  the  future,  and  the  power  and  influence  of  their 
oracles  is,  says  Dollinger,  a  phenomenon  unique  in  his¬ 
tory. 

Among  these  oracles,  Delphi,  as  is  well  known,  took  the 
highest  rank.  It  was  considered  the  centre  of  the  earth, 
and  was  revered  by  the  Pan-Hellenic  race.  It  was  a  su¬ 
preme  religious  court,  whose  decisions  were  believed  to  be 
infallible.  The  despotism  of  the  Pythian  decisions  was, 
however,  tempered  by  their  ambiguity.  Their  predictions, 

*  Mr.  Fergusson  thinks  the  peristyle  not  intended  for  an  ambulatory, 
but  is  unable  to  assign  any  other  satisfactory  purpose. 

t  Illustrated  Hand-Book  of  Architecture. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


301 


if  they  failed,  seldom  destroyed  the  faith  of  the  believers  ; 
for  always  some  explanation  could  be  devised  to  save 
the  credit  of  the  oracle.  Thus,  the  Pythian  promised  the 
Athenians  that  they  would  take  all  the  Syracusans  prison¬ 
ers.  They  did  not  take  them ;  but  as  a  muster-roll  of  the 
Syracusan  army  fell  into  their'  hands,  this  was  considered 
to  fulfil  the  promise.*  Aristides,  the  rhetorician,  was  told 
that  the  “  white  maidens  ”  would  take  care  of  him  ;  and 
receiving  a  letter  which  was  of  advantage,  he  was  fully 
convinced  that  this  was  the  “  white  maiden.”  But  neither 
imposition  nor  delusion  will  satisfactorily  explain  the 
phenomena  connected  with  oracles.  The  foundation  of 
them  seems  to  have  been  a  state  allied  to  the  modern 
manifestations  of  magnetic  sleep  and  clairvoyance. 

“  As  the  whole  life  of  the  Greeks,”  says  Dollinger,  “  was 
penetrated  by  religion,”  they  instinctively  and  naturally 
prayed  on  all  occasions.  They  prayed  at  sunrise  and  sun¬ 
set,  at  meal-times,  for  outward  blessings  of  all  kinds,  and 
also  for  virtue  and.  wisdom.  They  prayed  standing,  with 
a  loud  voice,  and  hands  lifted  to  the  heavens.  They 
threw  kisses  to  the  gods  with  their  hands. 

So  we  see  that  the  Greek  worship,  like  their  theology, 
was  natural  and  human,  a  cheerful  and  hopeful  worship, 
free  from  superstition.  This  element  only  arrives  with 
the  mysteries,  and  the  worship  of  the  Cthonic  gods.  To 
the  Olympic  gods  supplications  were  addressed  as  to  free 
moral  agents,  who  might  be  persuaded  or  convinced,  but 
could  not  be  compelled.  To  the  under-world  deities 
prayer  took  the  form  of  adjuration,  and  degenerated  into 
magic  formulas,  which  were  supposed  to  force  these  deities 
to  do  what  was  asked  by  the  worshipper. 

§  8.  The  Mysteries.  Orphism. 

The  early  gods  of  most  nations  are  local  and  tribal. 
They  belong  only  to  limited  regions,  or  to  small  clans,  and 
have  no  supposed  authority  or  influence  beyond.  This 
was  eminently  the  case  in  Greece ;  and  after  the  great 
Hellenic  worship  had  arrived,  the  local  and  family  gods 


*  Plutarch,  quoted  by  Dollinger. 


302 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


retained  also  tlieir  position,  and  continued  to  be  rever¬ 
enced.  In  Athens,  down  to  the  time  of  Alexander,  each 
tribe  in  the  city  kept  its  own  divinities  and  sacrifices.  It 
also  happened  that  the  supreme  god  of  one  state  would 
be  adored  as  a  subordinate  power  in  another.  Every 
place  had  its  favorite  protector.  As  different  cities  in 
Italy  have  their  different  Madonnas,  whom  they  consider 
more  powerful  than  the  Madonna  of  their  neighbors, 
so  in  Greece  the  same  god  was  invoked  in  various  local¬ 
ities  under  different  surnames.  The  Arcadian  Zeus  had 
the  surname  of  Lycaeus,  derived,  probably,  from  Au£,  Lux, 
light.  The  Cretan  Jupiter  was  called  Asterios.  At  Karia 
he  was  Stratios.  Iolaus  in  Euripides  (the  Herakleidae,  347) 
says :  “  We  have  gods  as  our  allies  not  inferior  to  those 
of  the  Argives,  0  king;  for  Juno,  the  wife  of  Jove,  is 
their  champion,  but  Minerva  ours  ;  and  I  say,  to  have  the 
best  gods  tends  to  success,  for  Pallas  will  not  endure  to 
be  conquered.*  So,  in  the  “  Suppliants  ”  of  ACschylus,  the 
Egyptian  Herald  says  (838) :  “  By  no  means  do  I  dread 
the  deities  of  this  place  ;  for  they  have  not  nourished  me 
nor  preserved  me  to  old  age.”  *f* 

Two  modes  of  worship  met  in  Greece,  together  with 
two  classes  of  gods.  The  Pelasgi,  as  we  have  seen,  wor¬ 
shipped  unnamed  impersonal  powers  of  the  universe, 
without  image  or  temple.  But  to  this  was  added  a  wor¬ 
ship  which  probably  came  through  Thrace,  from  Asia  and 
Egypt.  This  element  introduced  religious  poetry  and 
music,  the  adoration  of  the  muses,  the  rites  and  nlysteries 
of  Demeter,  and  the  reverence  for  the  Kabiri,  or  dark 
divinities  of  the  lower  world. 

Of  these,  the  Mysteries  were  the  most  significant  and 
important.  Their  origin  must  be  referred  to  a  great  an¬ 
tiquity,  and  they  continued  to  be  practised  down  to  the 
times  of  the  Roman  Emperors.  They  seem  not  to  belong 
to  the  genuine  Greek  religion,  but  to  be  an  alien  element 
introduced  into  it.  The  gods  of  the  Mysteries  are  not 
the  beings  of  light,  but  of  darkness,  not  the  gods  of  Olym¬ 
pus,  but  of  the  under-world.  Everything  connected  with 

*  Buckley’s  translation,  in  Bohn’s  Classical  Library. 

+  Ibid. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


303 


the  Mysteries  is  foreign  to  the  Hellenic  mind.  This  wor¬ 
ship  is  secret ;  its  spirit  is  of  awe,  terror,  remorse ;  its 
object  is  expiation  of  sin.  Finally,  it  is  a  hieratic  worship, 
in  the  hands  of  priests. 

All  this  suggests  Egypt  as  the  origin  of  the  Mysteries. 
The  oldest  were  those  celebrated  in  the  island  of  Samo- 
thrace,  near  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor.  Here  Orpheus  is 
reputed  to  have  come  and  founded  the  Bacchic  Mysteries  ; 
while  another  legend  reports  him  to  have  been  killed  by 
the  Bacchantes  for  wishing  to  substitute  the  worship  of 
Apollo  for  that  of  Dionysos.  This  latter  story,  taken 
in  connection  with  the  civilizing  influence  ascribed  to 
Orpheus,  indicates  his  introducing  a  purer  form  of  wor¬ 
ship.  He  reformed  the  licentious  drunken  rites,  and 
established  in  place  of  them  a  more  serious  religion.  He 
died  a  martyr  to  this  purer  faith,  killed  by  the  women, 
who  were  incited  to  this,  no  doubt,  by  the  priests  of  the 
old  Bacchic  worship. 

The  worship  of  Dionysos  Zagreus,  which  was  the 
Orphic  form  of  Bacchism,  contained  the  doctrines  of  retri¬ 
bution  in  another  life,  —  a  doctrine  common  to  all  the 
Greek  Mysteries. 

It  would  seem  probable,  from  an  investigation  of  this 
subject,  that  two  elements  of  worship  are  to  be  found  in 
the  Greek  religion,  which  were  never  quite  harmonized. 
One  is  the  worship  of  the  Olympian  deities,  gods  of  light 
and  day,  gods  of  this  world,  and  interested  in  our  present 
human  life.  This  worship  tended  to  promote  a  free  devel¬ 
opment  of  character ;  it  was  self-possessed,  cheerful,  and 
public  ;  it  left  the  worshipper  unalarmed  by  any  dread  of 
the  future,  or  any  anxiety  about  his  soul.  For  the 
Olympic  gods  cared  little  about  the  moral  character  of 
their  worshippers ;  and  the  dark  Fate  which  lay  behind 
gods  and  men  could  not  be  propitiated  by  any  rites,  and 
must  be  encountered  manfully,  as  one  meets  the  inevit¬ 
able. 

The  other  worship,  running  parallel  with  this,  was  of 
the  Cthonic  gods,  deities  of  earth  and  the  under-world, 
rulers  of  the  night-side  of  nature,  and  monarchs  of  the 
world  to  come.  Their  worship  was  solemn,  mysterious, 


304 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


secret,  and  concerned  expiation  of  sin,  and  the  salvation 
of  the  soul  hereafter. 

Now,  when  we  consider  that  the  Egyptian  popular 
worship  delighted  in  just  such  mysteries  as  these  ;  that  it 
related  to  the  judgment  of  the  soul  hereafter ;  that  its 
solemnities  were  secret  and  wrapped  in  dark  symbols  ; 
and  that  the  same  awful  Cthonic  deities  were  the  objects 
of  its  reverence  ;  —  when  we  also  remember  that  Herodotus 
and  the  other  Greek  writers  state  that  the  early  religion 
of  the  Pelasgi  was  derived  from  Egypt,  and  that  Orpheus, 
the  Thracian,  brought  thence  his  doctrine,  —  there  seems 
no  good  reason  for  denying  such  a  source.  On  the  other 
hand,  nothing  can  be  more  probable  than  an  immense  in¬ 
fluence  on  Pelasgic  worship,  derived  through  Thrace,  from 
Egypt.  This  view  is  full  of  explanations,  and  makes 
much  in  the  Greek  mythology  clear  which  would  other¬ 
wise  be  obscure. 

The  Greek  myth  of  Demeter  and  Persephone,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  seems  to  be  an  adaptation  to  the  Hellenic  mind  and 
land  of  the  Egyptian  myth  of  Osiris  and  Isis.  Both  are 
symbols,  first,  of  natural  phenomena ;  and,  secondly,  of 
the  progress  of  the  human  soul.  The  sad  Isis  seeking 
Osiris,  and  the  sad  Demeter  seeking  Persephone,  constitute 
evidently  the  same  legend  ;  only  Osiris  is  the  Nile,  evapo¬ 
rated  into  scattered  pools  by  the  burning  heat,  while  Perse¬ 
phone  is  the  seed,  the  treasure  of  the  plant,  which  sinks 
into  the  earth,  but  is  allowed  to  come  up  again  as  the  stalk, 
and  pass  a  part  of  its  life  in  the  upper  air.  But  both  these 
nature-myths  were  spiritualized  in  the  Mysteries,  and 
made  to  •  denote  the  wanderings  of  the  soul  in  its  search 
for  truth.  Similar  to  these  legends  was  that  of  Dionysos 
*Zagreus,  belonging  to  Crete,  according  to  Euripides  and 
other  writers.  Zagreus  was  the  son  of  the  Cretan  Zeus 
and  Persephone,  and  was  hewn  in  pieces  by  the  Titans, 
his  heart  alone  being  preserved  by  Athene,  who  gave  it  to 
Zeus.  Zeus  killed  the  Titans,  and  enclosed  the  heart  in  a 
plaster  image  of  his  child.  According  to  another  form  of 
the  story,  Zeus  swallowed  the  heart,  and  from  it  repro¬ 
duced  another  Dionysos.  Apollo  collected  the  rest  of  the 
members,  and  they  were  reunited,  and  restored  to  life. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


305 


The  principal  mysteries  were  those  of  Bacchus  and  Ceres. 
The  Bacchic  mysteries  were  very  generally  celebrated 
throughout  Greece,  and  were  a  wild  nature-worship  ;  par¬ 
taking  of  that  frenzy  which  has  in  all  nations  been  con¬ 
sidered  a  method  of  gaining  a  supernatural  and  inspired 
state,  or  else  as  the  result  of  it.  The  Siva  worship  in 
India,  the  Pythoness  at  Delphi,  the  Schamaism  of  the 
North,  the  whirling  dervishes  of  the  Mohammedans ; 
and  some  of  the  scenes  at  the  camp-meetings  in  the 
Western  States,  belong  to  the  same  class  as  the  Bacchic 
orgies. 

The  Eleusinian  mysteries  were  very  different.  These 
were  in  honor  of  Ceres ;  they  were  imported  from  Egypt. 
The  wanderings  of  Isis  in  search  of  Osiris  were  changed 
to  those  of  Ceres  or  Demeter  (the  mother-earth  =  Isis)  in 
search  of  Persephone.  Both  represented  in  a  secondary 
symbolism  the  wanderings  of  the  soul,  seeking  God  and 
truth.  This  was  the  same  idea  as  that  of  Apuleius  in  the 
beautiful  story  of  Psyche. 

These  mysteries  were  celebrated  at  Eleusis  by  the 
Athenians  every  fourth  year.  They  were  said  to  have 
been  introduced  B.  c.  1356,  and  were  very  sacred.  All 
persons  were  required  to  be  initiated.  If  they  refused  it 
they  were  supposed  to  be  irreligious.  “  Have  you  been 
initiated  ?  ”  was  asked  in  dangerous  situations.  The  in¬ 
itiated  were  said  to  be  calm  in  view  of  death.  It  was  the 
personal  religion  of  the  Greeks. 

In  the  greater  mysteries  at  Eleusis  the  candidates  were 
crowned  with  myrtle,  and  admitted  by  night  into  a  vast 
temple,  where  they  were  purified  and  instructed,  and 
assisted  at  certain  grand  solemnities.  The  doctrines 
taught  are  unknown,  but  are  supposed  to  have  been  the 
unity  of  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  But  this 
is  only  conjecture. 

Bacchus  is  believed  to  have  been  originally  an  Indian 
god,  naturalized  in  Greece,  and  his  mysteries  to  be  Indian 
in  their  character.  The  genial  life  of  nature  is  the  essen¬ 
tial  character  of  Bacchus.  One  of  the  names  of  the 
Indian  Siva  is  Dionichi,  which  very  nearly  resembles  the 
Greek  name  of  Bacchus,  Dionysos.  He  was  taken  from- 


306 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


the  Meros,  or  thigh  of  Jupiter.  Now  Mount  Meru,  in 
India,  is  the  home  of  the  gods  ;  by  a  common  etymological 
error  the  Greeks  may  have  thought  it  the  Greek  word  for 
thigh,  and  so  translated  it. 

The  Bacchic  worship,  in  its  Thracian  form,  was  always 
distasteful  to  the  best  of  the  Greeks ;  it  was  suspected 
and  disliked  by  the  enlightened,  proscribed  by  kings,  and 
rejected  by  communities.  It  was  an  interpolated  system, 
foreign  to  the  cheerful  nature  of  Greek  thought. 

As  to  the  value  of  the  mysteries  themselves,  there  was 
a  great  difference  of  opinion  among  the  Greeks.  The 
people,  the  orators,  and  many  of  the  poets  praised  them ; 
but  the  philosophers  either  disapproved  them  openly,  or 
passed  them  by  in  silence.  Socrates  says  no  word  in  their 
favor  in  all  his  reported  conversations.  Plato  complains 
of  the  immoral  influence  derived  from  believing  that  sin 
could  be  expiated  by  such  ceremonies.*  They  seem  to 
have  contained,  in  reality,  little  direct  instruction,  but  to 
have  taught  merely  by  a  dramatic  representation  and 
symbolic  pictures. 

Who  Orpheus  was,  and  when  Ire  lived,  can  never  be 
known.  But  the  probabilities  are  that  he  brought  from 
Egypt  into  Greece,  what  Moses  took  from  Egypt  into 
Palestine,  the  Egyptian  ideas  of  culture,  law,  and  civili¬ 
zation.  He  reformed  the  Bacchic  mysteries,  giving  them 
a  more  elevated  and  noble  character,  and  for  this  lie  lost 
his  life.  No  better  account  of  his  work  can  be  given 
than  in  the  words  of  Lord  Bacon. 

“  The  merits  of  learning,”  says  he,  “  in  repressing  the  incon¬ 
veniences  which  grow  from  man  to  man,  was  lively  set  forth 
by  the  ancients  in  that  feigned  relation  of  Orpheus’  theatre, 
where  all  beasts  and  birds  assembled  ;  and,  forgetting  their 
several  appetites,  some  of  prey,  some  of  game,  some  of  quarrel, 
stood  all  sociably  together,  listening  to  the  airs  and  accords  of 
the  harp  ;  the  sound  thereof  no  sooner  ceased  or  was  drowned 
by  some  louder  noise,  but  every  beast  returned  to  his  own 
nature  ;  wherein  is  aptly  described  the  nature  and  condition 
of  men,  who  are  full  of  savage  and  unreclaimed  desires  of 

*  Republic,  II.  17.  See  Dollinger’s  discussion  of  this  subject,  in  “The 
Gentile  and  the  Jew,”  English  translation,  Yol.  I.  p.  125. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


307 


profit,  of  lust,  of  revenge,  which,  as  long  as  they  give  ear  to 
precepts,  to  laws,  to  religion,  sweetly  touched  by  eloquence 
and  persuasion  of  books,  of  sermons,  of  harangues,  so  long  is 
society  and  peace  maintained ;  but  if  these  instruments  be 
silent,  or  that  sedition  and  tumult  make  them  not  audible, 
all  things  dissolve  into  anarchy  and  confusion.”  * 

Of  the  Orphic  doctrines  we  are  able  to  give  a  somewhat 
better  account.  As  far  back  as  the  sixth  century  before 
Christ,  there  were  scattered  through  Greece  hymns,  lyr¬ 
ical  poems,  and  prose  treatises,  treating  of  theological 
questions,  and  called  Orphic  writings.  These  works  con¬ 
tinued  to  be  produced  through  many  centuries,  and  evi¬ 
dently  met  an  appetite  in  the  Greek  mind.  They  were 
not  philosophy,  they  were  not  myths  nor  legends,  but 
contained  a  mystic  and  pantheistic  theology.f  The 
views  of  the  Pythagoreans  entered  largely  into  this  sys¬ 
tem.  The  Orphic  writings  develop,  by  degrees,  a  system 
of  cosmogony,  in  which  Time  was  the  first  principle  of 
things,  from  which  came  chaos  and  ether.  Then  came 
the  primitive  egg,  from  which  was  born  Phanes,  or  Man¬ 
ifestation.  This  being  is  the  expression  of  intelligence, 
and  creates  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  The  soul  is  but 
the  breath  which  comes  from  the  whole  universe,  thus 
organized,  and  is  imprisoned  in  the  body  as  in  a  tomb, 
for  sins  committed  in  a  former  existence.  Life  is  there¬ 
fore  not  joy,  but  punishment  and  sorrow.  At  death  the 
soul  escapes  from  this  prison,  to  pass  through  many 
changes,  by  which  it  will  be  gradually  purified.  All  these 
notions  are  alien  to  the  Greek  mind,  and  are  plainly  a 
foreign  importation.  The  true  Greek  was  neither  panthe¬ 
ist  nor  introspective.  He  did  not  torment  himself  about 
the  origin  of  evil  or  the  beginning  of  the  universe,  but 
took  life  as  it  came,  cheerfully. 

The  pantheism  of  the  Orphic  theology  is  constantly 
apparent.  Thus,  in  a  poem  preserved  by  Proclus  and 
Eusebius  it  is  said :  J  — 

*  Advancement  of  Learning. 

t  Ottfried  Muller  has  shown  that  some  of  these  writings  existed  in  the 
time  of  Euripides. 

X  Cudworth’s  Intellectual  System,  I.  403  ( Am.  ed.).  Rixner,  Hand- 
buch  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophie,  Anhang,  Yol.  I. 


308 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


“  Zeus,  the  mighty  thunderer,  is  first,  Zeus  is  last, 

Zeus  is  the  head,  Zeus  the  middle  of  all  things. 

From  Zeus  were  all  things  produced.  He  is  both  man  and  woman  ; 
Zeus  is  the  depth  of  the  earth,  and  the  height  of  the  starry  heavens  ; 
He  is  the  breath  of  all  things,  the  force  of  untamed  fire  ; 

The  bottom  of  the  sea  ;  sun,  moon,  and  stars ; 

Origin  of  all  ;  king  of  all  ; 

One  Power,  one  God,  one  great  Ruler.” 

\ 

And  another  says,  still  more  plainly  :  — 

“  There  is  one  royal  body,  in  which  all  things  are  enclosed. 

Fire  and  Water,  Earth,  Ether,  Night  and  Day, 

And  Counsel,  the  first  producer,  and  delightful  Love, 

For  all  these  are  contained  in  the  great  body  of  Zeus.” 


§  9.  Relation  of  Greek  Religion  to  Christianity. 

One  of  the  greatest  events  in  the  history  of  man,  as 
well  as  one  of  the  most  picturesque  situations,  was  when 
Paul  stood  on  the  Areopagus  at  Athens,  carrying  Chris¬ 
tianity  into  Europe,  offering  a  Semitic  religion  to  an 
Aryan  race,  the  culmination  of  monotheism  to  one  of  the 
most  elaborate  and  magnificent  polytheisms  of  the  world. 
A  strange  and  marvellous  scene  !  From  the  place  where 
he  stood  he  saw  all  the  grandest  works  of  human  art,  —  the 
Acropolis  rose  before  him,  a  lofty  precipitous  rock,  seem¬ 
ing  like  a  stone  pedestal  erected  by  nature  as  an  appro¬ 
priate  platform  for  the  perfect  marble  temples  with  which 
man  should  adorn  it.  On  this  noble  base  rose  the  Par¬ 
thenon,  temple  of  Minerva ;  and  the  temple  of  Neptune, 
with  its  sacred  fountain.  The  olive-tree  of  Pallas-Athene 
was  there,  and  her  colossal  statue.  On  the  plain  below 
were  the  temples  of  Theseus  and  Jupiter  Olympus,  and 
innumerable  others.  He  stood  where  Socrates  had  stood 
four  hundred  years  before,  defending  himself  against  the 
charge  of  atheism ;  where  Demosthenes  had  pleaded  in 
immortal  strains  of  eloquence  in  behalf  of  Hellenic  free¬ 
dom  ;  where  the  most  solemn  and  venerable  court  of  jus¬ 
tice  known  among  men  was  wont  to  assemble.  There  he 
made  the  memorable4  discourse,  a  few  fragments  only  of 
which  have  come  to  us  in  the  Book  of  Acts,  but  a  sketch 
significant  of  his  argument.  He  did  not  begin,  as  in 
our  translation,  by  insulting  the  religion  of  the  Greeks, 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


309 


and  calling  it  a  superstition ;  but  by  praising  them  for 
their  reverence  and  piety.  Paul  respected  all  manifesta¬ 
tions  of  awe  and  love  toward  those  mysteries  and  glories 
of  the  universe,  in  which  the  invisible  things  of  God 
have  been  clearly  seen  from  the  foundation  of  the  world. 
Then  he  mentions  his  finding  the  altar  to  the  unknown 
God,  mentioned  also  by  Pausanias  and  other  Greek 
writers,  one  of  whom,  Diogenes  Laertius,  says  that  in  a 
time  of  plague,  not  knowing  to  what  god  to  appeal,  they 
let  loose  a  number  of  black  and  white  sheep,  and  where- 
ever  any  one  laid  down  they  erected  an  altar  to  an  un¬ 
known  god,  and  offered  sacrifices  thereon.  Then  he  an¬ 
nounced  as  his  central  and  main  theme  the  Most  High 
God,  maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  spiritual,  not  needing  to 
receive  anything  from  man,  but  giving  him  all  things. 
Next,  he  proclaimed  the  doctrine  of  universal  human 
brotherhood.  God  had  made  all  men  of  one  blood  ;  their 
varieties  and  differences,  as  well  as  their  essential  unity, 
being  determined  by  a  Divine  Providence.  P>ut  all  were 
equally  made  to  seek  him,  and  in  their  various  ways 
to  find  him,  who  is  yet  always  near  to  all,  since  all  are 
his  children.  God  is  immanent  in  all  men,  says  Paul,  as 
their  life.  Having  thus  stated  the  great  unities  of  faith 
and  points  of  agreement,  he  proceeds  only  in  the  next 
instance  to  the  oppositions  and  criticisms ;  in  which  he 
opposes,  not  polytheism,  but  idolatry  ;  though  not  blaming 
them  severely  even  for  that.  Lastly,  he  speaks  of  Jesus, 
as  a  man  ordained  by  God  to  judge  the  world  and  govern 
it  in  righteousness,  and  proved  by  his  resurrection  from 
the  dead  to  be  so  chosen. 

Here  we  observe,  in  this  speech,  monotheism  came  in 
contact  with  polytheism,  and  the  two  forms  of  human 
religion  met,  —  that  which  makes  man  the  child  of  God, 
and  that  which  made  the  gods  the  children  of  men. 

The  result  we  know.  The  cry  was  heard  on  the  sandy 
shore  of  Eurotas  and  in  green  Cythnus.  —  “  Great  Pan  is 
dead.”  The  Greek  humanities,  noble  and  beautiful  as 
they  were,  faded  away  before  the  advancing  steps  of  the 
Jewish  peasant,  who  had  dared  to  call  God  his  Father 
and  man  his  brother.  The  parables  of  the  Prodigal  Son 


310 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


and  the  Good  Samaritan  were  stronger  than  Homer’s 
divine  song  and  Pindar’s  lofty  hymns.  This  was  the 
religion  for  man.  And  so  it  happened  as  Jesus  had  said  : 
“  My  sheep  hear  my  voice  and  follow  me.”  Those  who 
felt  in  their  hearts  that  Jesus  was  their  true  leader 
followed  him. 

The  gods  of  Greece,  being  purely  human,  were  so  far 
related  to  Christianity.  That,  too,  is  a  human  religion ;  a 
religion  which  makes  it  its  object  to  unfold  man,  and  to 
cause  all  to  come  to  the  stature  of  perfect  men.  Chris¬ 
tianity  also  showed  them  God  in  the  form  of  man ;  God 
dwelling  on  the  earth ;  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  It 
also  taught  that  the  world  was  full  of  God,  and  that  all 
places  and  persons  were  instinct  with  a  secret  divinity. 
Schiller  (as  translated  by  Coleridge)  declares  that  Love 
was  the  source  of  these  Greek  creations :  — 

‘  ’T  is  not  merely 

The  human  "being’s  pride  that  peoples  space 
With  life  and  mystical  predominance, 

Since  likewise  for  the  stricken  heart  of  Love 
This  visible  nature,  and  this  common  world 
Is  all  too  narrow  ;  yea,  a  deeper  import 
Lurks  in  the  legend  told  my  infant  years 
That  lies  upon  that  truth,  we  live  to  learn. 

For  fable  is  Love’s  world,  his  home,  his  birthplace  ; 
Delightedly  dwells  he  ’mong  fays  and  talismans, 

And  spirits,  and  delightedly  believes 
Divinities,  being  himself  divine. 

The  intelligible  forms  of  ancient  poets, 

The  fair  humanities  of  Old  Religion, 

The  Power,  the  Beauty,  and  the  Majesty, 

That  had  their  haunts  in  dale  or  piny  mountain. 

Or  forest  by  slow  stream,  or  pebbly  spring, 

Or  chasms  or  wat’ry  depths  ;  —  all  these  have  vanished. 

They  live  no  longer  in  the  faith  of  Reason. 

But  still  the  heart  doth  need  a  language  ;  still 
Doth  the  old  instinct  bring  back  the  old  names.” 

The  Piccolomini ,  Act  II.  Scene  4. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  we  find  the  believers  in  the  Greek 
religion  more  ready  to  receive  Christianity  than  were  the 
Jews.  All  through  Asia  Minor  and  Greece  Christian 
churches  were  planted  by  Paul ;  a  fact  which  shows  that 
the  ground  was  somehow  prepared  for  Christianity.  It 
was  ready  for  the  monotheism  which  Paul  substituted 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


311 


for  their  multitude  of  gods,  and  for  their  idolatry  and 
image-worship.  The  statues  had  ceased  to  he  symbols, 
and  the  minds  of  the  Greeks  rested  in  the  image  itself. 
This  idolatrous  worship  Paul  condemned,  and  the  people 
heard  him  willingly,  as  he  called  them  up  to  a  more 
spiritual  worship.  We  think,  therefore,  that  the  Greek 
religion  was  a  real  preparation  for  Christianity.  We  have 
seen  that  it  was  itself  in  constant  transition ;  the  system 
of  the  poets  passing  into  that  of  the  artists,  and  that  of 
the  artists  into  that  of  the  philosophers ;  so  that  the 
philosophic  religion,  in  turn,  was  ready  to  change  into 
a  Christian  monotheism. 

-  It  may  be  said,  since  philosophy  had  undermined  the 
old  religion  and  substituted  for  it  more  noble  ideas,  why 
did  it  not  take  the  seat  of  the  dethroned  faith,  and  suffi¬ 
ciently  supply  its  place  ?  If  it  taught  a  pure  monotheism 
and  profound  ethics,  if  it  threw  ample  and  adequate 
light  on  the  problem  of  God,  duty,  and  immortality,  what 
more  was  needed  ?  If  ideas  are  all  that  we  want,  nothing 
more.  That  Greek  philosophy  gave  way  before  Chris¬ 
tianity  shows  that  it  did  not  satisfy  all  the  cravings  of  the 
soul ;  shows  that  man  needs  a  religion  as  well  as  a  reli¬ 
gious  philosophy,  a  faith  as  well  as  an  intellectual  system. 
A  religion  is  one  thing,  a  speculation  is  a  very  different 
thing.  The  old  Greek  religion,  so  long  as  it  was  a  living 
faith,  was  enough.  When  men  really  believed  in  the  ex¬ 
istence  of  Olympian  Jove,  Pallas-Athene,  and  Phoebus- 
Apollo,  they  had  something  above  them  to  which  to  look 
up.  When  this  faith  was  disintegrated,  no  system  of 
opinions,  however  pure  and  profound,  could  replace  it. 
Another  faith  was  needed,  but  a  faith  not  in  conflict  with 
the  philosophy  which  had  destroyed  polytheism;  and 
Christianity  met  the  want,  and  therefore  became  the  reli¬ 
gion  of  the  Greek-speaking  world. 

Keligion  is  a  life,  philosophy  is  thought ;  religion  looks 
up,  philosophy  looks  in.  We  need  both  thought  and  life, 
and  we  need  that  the  two  shall  be  in  harmony.  The 
moment  they  come  in  conflict,  both  suffer.  Philosophy 
had  destroyed  the  ancient  simple  faith  of  the  Hellenic 
race  in  their  deities,  and  had  given  them  instead  only 


312 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


the  abstractions  of  thought.  Then  came  the  Apostles  of 
Christianity,  teaching  a  religion  in  harmony  with  the 
highest  thought  of  the  age,  and  yet  preaching  it  out  of  a 
living  faith.  Christianity  did  not  come  as  a  speculation 
about  the  universe,  but  as  a  testimony.  Its  heralds  bore 
witness  to  the  facts  of  God’s  presence  and  providence,  of 
his  fatherly  love,  of  the  brotherhood  of  man,  of  a  rising 
to  a  higher  life,  of  a  universal  judgment  hereafter  on  all 
good  and  evil,  and  of  Jesus  as  the  inspired  and  ascended 
revealer  of  these  truths.  These  facts  were  accepted  as  re¬ 
alities  ;  and  once  more  the  human  mind  had  something 
above  itself  solid  enough  to  support  it. 

Some  of  the  early  Christian  Fathers  called  on  the 
heathen  poets  and  philosophers  to  bear  witness  to  the 
truth.  Clement  of  Alexandria,*  after  quoting  this  pas¬ 
sage  of  Plato,  “  around  the  king  of  all  are  all  things,  and 
he  is  the  cause  of  all  good  things,”  says  that  others, 
through  God’s  inspiration,  have  declared  the  only  true 
God  to  be  God.  He  quotes  Antisthenes  to  this  effect: 
“  God  is  not  like  to  any ;  wherefore  no  one  can  know  him 
from  an  image.”  He  quotes  Cleanthes  the  Stoic :  — 

“If  you  ask  me  what  is  the  nature  of  the  good,  listen  : 

That  which  is  regular,  just,  holy,  pious, 

Self-governing,  useful,  fair,  fitting, 

Grave,  independent,  always  beneficial, 

That  feels  no  fear  or  grief ;  profitable,  painless, 

Helpful,  pleasant,  safe,  friendly.” 

“  Nor,”  says  Clement,  “  must  we  keep  the  Pythagoreans 
in  the  background,  who  say,  ‘  God  is  one  ;  and  he  is  not,  as 
some  suppose,  outside  of  this  frame  of  things,  but  within 
it ;  in  all  the  entireness  of  his  being  he  pervades  the  whole 
circle  of  existence,  surveying  all  nature,  and  blending  in 
harmonious  union  the  whole  ;  the  author  of  his  own  forces 
and  works,  the  giver  of  light  in  heaven,  and  father  of  all ; 
the  mind  and  vital  power  of  the  whole  world,  the  mover 
of  all  things.’  ” 

Clement  quotes  Aratus  the  poet :  — 

“  That  all  may  be  secure 
Him  ever  they  propitiate  first  and  last. 

Hail,  Father  !  great  marvel,  great  gain  to  man.” 

*  Ante-Nicene  Christian  Library,  Vol.  IY.  p.  71. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


313 


“  Thus  also,”  says  Clement,  “  the  Ascrsean  Hesiod  dimly 
speaks  of  God :  — 

‘For  he  is  the  king  of  all,  and  monarch 

Of  the  immortals,  and  there  is  none  that  can  vie  with  him  in  power.  * 

“  And  Sophocles,  the  son  of  Sophilus,  says  :  — 

‘  One,  in  truth,  one  is  God, 

Who  made  both  heaven  and  the  far-,stretching  earth  ; 

And  ocean’s  blue  wave,  and  the  mighty  winds  ; 

But  many  of  us  mortals,  deceived  in  heart, 

Have  set  up  for  ourselves,  as  a  consolation  in  our  afflictions, 

Images  of  the  gods,  of  stone,  or  wood,  or  brass, 

Or  gold,  or  ivory  ; 

And,  appointing  to  these  sacrifices  and  vain  festivals, 

Are  accustomed  thus  to  practise  religion.’ 

“  But  the  Thracian  Orpheus,  the  son  of  (Eagrus,  hiero¬ 
phant  and  poet,  at  once,  after  his  exposition  of  the  orgies 
and  his  theology  of  idols,  introduces  a  palinode  of  truth 
with  solemnity,  though  tardily  singing  the  strain :  — 

‘  I  shall  utter  to  whom  it  is  lawful ;  but  let  the  doors  be  closed, 
Nevertheless,  against  all  the  profane.  But  do  thou  hear, 

0  Musreus,  for  I  will  declare  what  is  true.’ 

“  He  then  proceeds  :  — 

‘He  is  one,  self-proceeding ;  and  from  him  alone  all  things  proceed, 

And  in  them  he  himself  exerts  his  activity  ;  no  mortal 

Beholds  him,  but  he  beholds  all.’  ” 

Professor  Cocker,  in  his  work  on  “  Christianity  and 
Greek  Philosophy,”  has  devoted  much  thought  to  show 
that  philosophy  was  a  preparation  for  Christianity;  and 
that  Greek  civilization  was  an  essential  condition  to  the 
progress  of  the  Gospel.  He  points  out  how  Greek  intelli¬ 
gence  and  culture,  literature  and  art,  trade  and  coloniza¬ 
tion,  the  universal  spread  of  the  Greek  language,  and 
especially  the  results  of  Greek  philosophy,  were  “  school¬ 
masters  to  bring  men  to  Christ.”  He  quotes  a  striking 
passage  from  Pressense  to  this  effect.  Philosophy  in 
Greece,  says  Pressense,  had  its  place  in  the  divine  plan. 
It  dethroned  the  false  gods.  It  purified  the  idea  of 
divinity. 

Cocker  sums  up  this  work  of  preparation  done  by  Greek 
philosophy,  as  seen,  — 

14 


314 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


“  1.  In  the  release  of  the  popular  mind  from  polytheis¬ 
tic  notions,  and  the  purifying  and  spiritualizing  of  the  theistic 
idea. 

“2.  In  the  development  of  the  theistic  argument  in  a 
logical  form. 

“  3.  In  the  awakening  and  enthronement  of  conscience  as  a 
law  of  duty,  and  in  the  elevation  and  purification  of  the  moral 
idea. 

“4.  In  the  fact  that,  by  an .  experiment  conducted  on  the 
largest  scale,  it  demonstrated  the  insufficiency  of  reason  to 
elaborate  a  perfect  ideal  of  moral  excellence,  and  develop  the 
moral  forces  necessary  to  secure  its  realization. 

“5.  It  awakened  and  deepened  the  consciousness  of  guilt 
and  the  desire  for  redemption.”* 

The  large  culture  of  Greece  was  evidently  adapted  to 
Christianity.  The  Jewish  mind  recognized  no  such  need 
as  that  of  universal  culture,  and  this  tendency  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  could  only  have  found  room  and  opportunity 
among  those  who  had  received  the  influence  of  Hellenic 
culture. 

The  points  of  contact  between  Christianity  and  Greek 
civilization  are  therefore  these :  — 

1.  The  character  of  God,  considered  in  both  as  an 
immanent,  ever-working  presence,  and  not  merely  as  a 
creating  and  governing  will  outside  the  universe. 

2.  The  character  of  man,  as  capable  of  education  and 
development,  who  is  not  merely  to  obey  as  a  servant,  but 
to  co-operate  as  a  friend,  with  the  divine  will,  and  grow  up 
in  all  things. 

3.  The  idea  of  duty,  as  a  reasonable  service,  and  not 
a  yoke. 

4.  God’s  revelations,  as  coming,  not  only  in  nature,  but 
also  in  inspired  men,  and  in  the  intuitions  of  the  soul ;  a 
conception  which  resulted  in  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity. 

The  good  of  polytheism  was  that  it  saw  something 
divine  in  nature.  By  dividing  God  into  numberless 
deities,  it  was  able  to  conceive  of  some  divine  power  in 

*  Christianity  and  Greek  Philosophy.  By  B.  F.  Cocker,  D.  D.  New 
York:  Harper  and  Brothers.  1870. 


THE  GODS  OF  GREECE. 


315 


all  eartlily  objects.  Hence  Wordsworth,  complaining  that 
we  can  see  little  of  this  divinity  now  in  nature,  cries 
out :  — 

“  Good  God  !  I  ’d  rather  be 
A  Pagan  suckled  in  a  creed  outworn  ; 

So  might  I,  standing  on  this  pleasant  lea, 

Have  glimpses  that  would  make  me  less  forlorn  ; 

Have  sight  of  Proteus  rising  from  the  sea, 

Or  hear  old  Triton  blow  his  wreathed  horn.” 


316 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 

§  1.  Origin  and  essential  Character  of  the  Religion  of  Rome.  §  2.  The 
Gods  of  Rome.  §  3.  Worship  and  Ritual.  §  4.  The  Decay  of  the 
Roman  Religion.  §  5.  Relation  of  the  Roman  Religion  to  Christian¬ 
ity. 

§  1.  Origin  and  essential  Character  of  the  Religion  of 

Rome. 

IN  the  Roman  state  nothing  grew,  everything  was 
made.  The  practical  understanding  was  the  despotic 
faculty  in  the  -genius  of  this  people.  Fancy,  imagination, 
humor,  seem  to  have  been  omitted  in  the  character  of  the 
Latin  race.  The  only  form  of  wit  which  appeared  among 
them  was  satire,  that  is,  wit  used  for  a  serious  purpose,  to 
punish  crimes  not  amenable  to  other  laws,  to  remove  abuses 
not  to  be  reached  by  the  ordinary  police.  The  gay,  light¬ 
hearted  Greek  must  have  felt  in  Rome  very  much  as  a 
Frenchman  feels  in  England.  The  Romans  did  not  know 
how  to  amuse  themselves  ;  they  pursued  their  recreations 
with  ferocious  earnestness,  making  always  a  labor  of  their 
pleasure.  They  said,  indeed,  that  it  was  well  sometimes 
to  unbend,  Dulce  est  dcsipere  in  locis ;  but  a  Roman 
when  unbent  was  like  an  unbent  bow,  almost  as  stiff  as 
before. 

In  other  words,  all  spontaneity  was  absent  from  the 
Roman  mind.  Everything  done  was  done  on  purpose, 
with  a  deliberate  intention.  This  also  appears  in  their 
religion.  Their  religion  was  not  an  inspiration,  but  an 
intention.  It  was  all  regular,  precise,  exact.  The  Roman 
cultus,  like  the  Roman  state,  was  a  compact  mass,  in 
which  all  varieties  were  merged  into  a  stern  unity.  All 
forms  of  religion  might  come  to  Rome  and  take  their 
places  in  its  pantheon,  but  they  must  come  as  servants 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


317 


and  soldiers  of  the  state.  Rome  opened  a  hospitable 
asylum  to  them,  just  as  Rome  had  established  a  ref¬ 
uge  on  the  Capitoline  Hill  to  which  all  outlaws  might 
come  and  be  safe,  on  the  condition  of  serving  the  com¬ 
munity. 

As  everything  in  Rome  must  serve  the  state,  so  the 
religion  of  Rome  was  a  state  institution,  an  established 
church.  But  as  the  state  can  only  command  and  forbid 
outward  actions,  and  has  no  control  over  the  heart,  so  the 
religion  of  Rome  was  essentially  external.  It  was  a  sys¬ 
tem  of  worship,  a  ritual,  a  ceremony.  If  the  externals 
were  properly  attended  to,  it  took  no  notice  of  opinions 
or  of  sentiments.  Thus  we  find  in  Cicero  (“  De  Natura 
Deorum  ”)  the  chief  pontiff  arguing  against  the  existence 
of  the  gods  and  the  use  of  divination.  He  claims  to  be¬ 
lieve  in  religion  as  a  pontifex,  while  he  argues  against  it 
as  a  philosopher.  The  toleration  of  Rome  consisted  in 
this,  that  as  long  as  there  was  outward  conformity  to  pre¬ 
scribed  observances,  it  troubled  itself  very  little  about 
opinions.  It  said  to  all  religions  what  Gallio  said  to  the 
Jews:  “If  it  be  a  question  of  words  and  names  and  of 
your  law,  look  ye  to  it ;  for  I  will  be  no  judge  of  such 
matters.”  Gallio  was  a  genuine  representative  of  Roman 
sentiment.  With  religion,  as  long  as  it  remained  within 
the  limits  of  opinion  or  feeling,  the  magistrate  had  noth¬ 
ing  to  do ;  only  when  it  became  an  act  of  disobedience  to 
the  public  law  it  was  to  be  punished.  Indeed,  the  very 
respect  for  national  law  in  the  Roman  mind  caused  it 
to  legalize  in  Rome  the  worship  of  national  gods.  They 
considered  it  the  duty  of  the  Jews,  in  Rome,  to  worship 
the  Jewish  God ;  of  Egyptians,  in  Rome,  to  worship  the 
gods  of  Egypt.  “Men  of  a  thousand  nations,”  says 
Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus,  “  come  to  the  city,  and  must 
worship  the  gods  of  their  country,  according  to  their  laws 
at  home.”  As  long  as  the  Christians  in  Rome  were  re¬ 
garded  as  a  Jewish  sect,  their  faith  was  a  religio  licita, 
when  it  was  understood  to  be  a  departure  from  J udaism, 
it  was  then  a  criminal  rebellion  against  a  national  faith.* 

The  Roman  religion  has  often  been  considered  as  a 

*  See  Neander,  Church  History,  Yol  I.  p.  88,  American  edition. 


318 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


mere  copy  of  that  of  Greece,  and  has  therefore  been  con¬ 
founded  with  it,  as  very  nearly  the  same  system.  No 
doubt  the  Romans  were  imitators ;  they  had  no  creative 
imagination.  They  borrowed  and  begged  their  stories 
about  the  gods,  from  Greece  or  elsewhere.  But  Hegel 
has  long  ago  remarked  that  the  resemblance  between  the 
two  religions  is  superficial.  The  gods  of  Rome,  he  says, 
are  practical  gods,  not  theoretic  ;  prosaic,  not  poetic.  The 
religion  of  Rome  is  serious  and  earnest,  while  that  of 
Greece  is  gay.  Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus  thinks  the 
Roman  religion  the  better  of  the  two,  because  it  rejected 
the  blasphemous  myths  concerning  the  loves  and  quarrels 
of  the  heavenly  powers.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
deities  of  Greece  were  more  living  and  real  persons,  with 
characters  of  their  own.  The  deities  of  Rome  were  work¬ 
ing  gods,  who  had  each  a  task  assigned  to  him.  They 
all  had  some  official  duty  to  perform ;  while  the  gods 
of  Olympus  could  amuse  themselves  as  they  pleased. 
While  the  Zeus  of  Greece  spent  his  time  in  adventures, 
many  of  which  were  disreputable,  the  Jupiter  Capitoli- 
nus  remained  at  home,  attending  to  his  sole  business, 
which  was  to  make  Rome  the  mistress  of  the  world.  The 
gods  of  Rome,  says  Hegel,  are  not  human  beings,  like 
those  of  Greece,  but  soulless  machines,  gods  made  by  the 
understanding,  even  when  borrowed  from  Greek  story. 
They  were  worshipped  also  in  the  interest  of  the  practical 
understanding,  as  givers  of  earthly  fortune.  The  Romans 
had  no  real  reverence  for  their  gods  ;  they  worshipped 
them  in  no  spirit  of  adoring  love,  but  always  for  some 
useful  object.  It  was  a  utilitarian  worship.  Accordingly 
the  practical  faculties,  engaged  in  useful  arts,  were  deified. 
There  was  a  Jupiter  Pistor,  presiding  over  bakers.  There 
was  a  goddess  of  ovens  ;  and  a  Juno  Moneta,  who  took 
care  of  the  coin.  There  was  a  goddess  who  presided 
over  doing  nothing,  Tranquillitas  Vacuna ;  and  even 
the  plague  had  an  altar  erected  to  it.  But,  after  all,  no 
deities  were  so  great,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Romans,  as 
Rome  itself.  The  chief  distinction  of  these  deities  was 
that  they  belonged  to  the  Roman  state.* 

*  Hegel’s  Philosophic  in  "Wortlichen  Ausiizgen.  Berlin,  1843. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


319 


Cicero  considers  the  Romans  to  be  the  most  religious 
of  all  nations,  because  they  carried  their  religion  into  all 
the  details  of  life.  This  is  true ;  but  one  might  as  well 
consider  himself  a  devout  worshipper  of  iron  or  of  wood, 
because  he  is  always  using  these  materials,  in  doors  and 
out,  in  his  parlor,  kitchen,  and  stable. 

As  the  religion  of  Rome  had  no  doctrinal  system,  its 
truths  were  communicated  mostly  by  spectacles  and  cere¬ 
monies,  which  chiefly  consisted  in  the  wholesale  slaugh¬ 
ter  of  men  and  animals.  There  was  something  frightful 
in  the  extent  to  which  this  w7as  carried ;  for  when  cruel¬ 
ty  proceeds  from  a  principle  and  purpose,  it  is  far  worse 
than  when  arising  from  brutal  passion.  An  angry  man 
may  beat  his  wife  :  but  the  deliberate,  repeated,  and  in¬ 
genious  torments  of  the  Inquisition,  the  massacre  of  thou¬ 
sands  of  gladiators  in  a  Roman  amphitheatre,  or  the 
torture  of  prisoners  by  the  North  American  Indians,  are 
all  parts  of  a  system,  and  reinforced  by  considerations  of 
propriety,  duty,  and  religious  reverence. 

Mommsen  remarks,*  that  the  Roman  religion  in  all  its 
details  was  a  reflection  of  the  Roman  state.  When  the 
constitution  and  institutions  of  Rome  changed,  their  re¬ 
ligion  changed  with  them.  One  illustration  of  this  cor¬ 
respondence  he  finds  in  the  fact  that  when  the  Romans 
admitted  the  people  of  a  conquered  state  to  become  citi¬ 
zens  of  Rome,  their  gods  were  admitted  with  them  ;  but 
in  both  cases  the  new  citizens  (■ novensides )  occupied  a 
subordinate  position  to  the  old  settlers  {indigites). f 

That  the  races  of  Italy,  among  whom  the  Latin  lan¬ 
guage  originated,  wTere  of  the  same  great  Asiatic  stock  as 
the  Greeks,  Germans,  Kelts,  and  Slavic  tribes,  is  suffi¬ 
ciently  proved  by  the  unimpeachable  evidence  of  language. 
The  old  Latin  roots  and  grammatic  forms  all  retain  the 
analogies  of  the  Aryan  families.  Their  gods  and  their 
religion  bear  marks  of  the  same  origin,  yet  with  a  special 
and  marked  development.  For  the  Roman  nation  was 
derived  from  at  least  three  secondary  sources,  —  the 

*  Romische  Gescliichte,  von  Theodor  Mommsen,  Kap.  XII. 
t  Janus,  Picus,  Faunus,  Romulus,  were  indigites.  Funke,  Real  Lexi¬ 
con. 


f 


320 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Latins,  Sabines,  and  Etruscans.  To  these  may  be  added 
the  Pelasgian  settlers  on  the  western  coast  (unless  these 
are  included  in  the  Etruscan  element),  and  the  very 
ancient  race  of  Siculi  or  Sikels,  whose  name  suggests, 
by  its  phonetic  analogy,  a  branch  of  that  widely  wan¬ 
dering  race,  the  Kelts.*  But  the  obscure  and  confused 
traditions  of  these  Italian  races  help  us  very  little  in 
our  present  inquiry.  That  some  of  the  oldest  Roman 
deities  were  Latin,  others  Sabine,  and  others  Etruscan,  is, 
however,  well  ascertained.  From  the  Latin  towns  Alba 
and  Lavinium  came  the  worship  of  Vesta,  Jupiter,  Juno, 
Saturn  and  Tellus,  Diana  and  Mars.  Niebuhr  thinks 
that  the  Sabine  ritual  was  adopted  by  the  Romans,  and 
that  Varro  found  the  real  remains  of  Sabine  chapels  on  the 
Quirinal.  From  Etruria  came  the  system  of  divination. 
Some  of  the  oldest  portions  of  the  Roman  religion  were 
derived  from  agriculture.  The  god  Saturn  took  his  name 
from  sowing.  Picus  and  Eaunus  were  agricultural  gods. 
Pales,  the  goddess  of  herbage,  had  offerings  of  milk  on 
her  festivals.  The  Romans,  says  Dollinger,  had  no  cos¬ 
mogony  of  their  own ;  a  practical  people,  they  took  the 
world  as  they  found  it,  and  did  not  trouble  themselves 
about  its  origin.  Nor  had  they  any  favorite  deities ; 
they  worshipped  according  to  what  was  proper,  every  one 
in  turn  at  the  right  time.  Though  the  most  polytheistic 
of  religions,  there  ran  through  their  system  an  obscure  con¬ 
ception  of  one  supreme  being,  J upiter  Optimus-Maximus, 
of  whom  all  the  other  deities  were  but  qualities  and  attri- 

*  See  Niebuhr’s  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Rome,  for  facts  concerning 
the  Siculi.  The  sound  el  appears  in  Keltic,  Gael,  Welsch,  Welsh,  Bel¬ 
gians,  Gauls,  Galatians,  etc.  M.  Grotefend  (as  quoted  by  Guigniaut,  in  his 
notes  to  Creuzer)  accepts  this  Keltic  origin  of  the  Siculi,  believing  that 
they  entered  Italy  from  the  northwest,  and  were  gradually  driven  far¬ 
ther  south  till  they  reached  Sicily.  Those  who  expelled  them  were  the 
Pelasgic  races,  who  passed  from  Asia,  south  of  the  Caspian  and  Black 
Seas,  through  Asia  Minor  and  Greece,  preceding  the  Hellenic  races:  This 
accounts  for  the  statement  of  Herodotus  that  the  Pelasgi  came  from 
Lydia  in  Asia  Minor,  without  our  being  obliged  to  assume  that  they  came 
by  sea,  —  a  fact  highly  improbable.  They  were  called  Tyrrheanians,  not 
from  any  city  or  king  of  Lydia,  but,  as  M.  Lepsius  believes,  from  the 
Greek  rtippis  (Latin,  turris),  a  tower,  because  of  their  Cyclopean  masonry. 
The  Roman  state,  on  this  supposition,  may  have  owed  its  origin  to  the 
union  of  the  two  great  Aryan  races,  the  Kelts  and  Pelasgi. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


321 


butes.  But  they  carried  furthest  of  all  nations  this  per¬ 
sonifying  and  deifying  of  every  separate  power,  this 
minute  subdivision  of  the  deity.  Heffter  *  says  this  was 
carried  to  an  extent  which  was  almost  comic.  They  had 
divinities  who  presided  over  talkativeness  and  silence,  over 
beginnings  and  endings,  over  the  manuring  of  the  fields, 
and  over  all  household  transactions.  And  as  the  number 
increased,  it  became  always  more  difficult  to  recollect 
which  was  the  right  god  to  appeal  to  under  any  special 
circumstances.  So  that  often  they  were  obliged  to  call  on 
the  gods  in  general,  and,  dismissing  the  whole  polytheistic 
pantheon,  to  invoke  some  unknown  god,  or  the  supreme 
being.  Sometimes,  however,  in  these  emergencies,  new 
deities  were  created  for  the  occasion.  Thus  they  came  to 
invoke  the  pestilence,  defeat  in  battle,  blight,  etc.,  as  dan¬ 
gerous  beings  whose  hostility  must  be  placated  by  sacri¬ 
fices.  A  better  part  of  their  mythology  was  the  worship 
of  Modesty  (Pudicitia),  Faith  or  Fidelity  (Fides),  Concord 
(Concordia),  and  the  gods  of  home.  It  was  the  business 
of  the  pontiffs  to  see  to  the  creation  of  new  divinities. 
So  the  Romans  had  a  goddess  Pecunia,  money  (from 
Pecus,  cattle),  dating  from  the  time  when  the  circulating 
medium  consisted  in  cows  and  sheep.  But  when  copper 
money  came,  a  god  of  copper  was  added,  JEsculanus  ;  and 
when  silver  money  was  invented,  a  god  Argentarius  ar¬ 
rived. 


§  2.  The  Gods  of  Rome. 

Creuzer,  in  speaking  of  the  Italian  worship,  says  that 
"  one  fact  which  emerges  more  prominently  than  any  other 
is  the  concourse  of  Oriental,  Pelasgic,  Samothracian,  and 
Hellenic  elements  in  the  religion  of  Rome.”  In  like 
manner  the  Roman  deities  bear  traces  of  very  different 
sources.  We  have  found  reason  to  believe,  in  our  pre¬ 
vious  chapters,  that  the  religion  of  Egypt  had  a  twofold 
origin,  from  Asiatic  and  African  elements,  and  that  the 
religion  of  Greece,  in  like  manner,  was  derived  from  Egyp¬ 
tian  and  Pelasgic  sources.  So,  too,  we  find  the  institutions 

*  Mythologie  der  Griechen  und  Romer,  von  Dr.  M.  W.  Heffter.  Leip¬ 
zig,  1854. 


14* 


u 


322 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


and  people  of  Rome  partaking  of  a  Keltic  and  Pelasgic 
origin.  Let  us  now  see  what  was  the  character  of  the 
Roman  deities. 

One  of  the  oldest  and  also  most  original  of  the  gods  of 
Rome  was  the  Sabine  god  Janus.  He  was  the  deity  who 
presided  over  beginnings  and  endings,  over  the  act  of 
opening  and  shutting.  Hence  the  month  which  opened 
the  year,  January,  received  its  name  from  this  god,  who 
also  gave  his  name  to  Janua,  a  gate  or  door,*  and  probably 
to  the  hill  Janiculum.*)* 

The  Romans  laid  great  stress  on  all  beginnings;  be¬ 
lieving  that  the  commencement  of  any  course  of  con¬ 
duct  determined,  by  a  sort  of  magical  necessity,  its 
results.  Bad  success  in  an  enterprise  they  attributed  to 
a  wrong  beginning,  and  the  only  remedy,  therefore,  was  to 
begin  anew.  Ovid  (Fasti,  I.  179)  makes  Janus  say,  “AH' 
depends  on  the  beginning.”  When  other  gods  were  wor¬ 
shipped,  Janus  was  invoked  first  of  all.  He  was  god  of 
the  year.  His  temple  had  four  sides  for  the  four  seasons, 
and  each  side  had  three  windows  for  the  months.  That 
his  temple  was  open  in  war,  but  closed  in  peace,  indicated 
that  the  character  of  Rome  in  times  of  war  was  to  at¬ 
tack  and  not  to  defend.  She  then  opened  her  gates  to 
send  her  troops  forth  against  the  enemy  ;  while  in  seasons 
of  peace  she  shut  them  in  at  home.  This  symbol  accords 
well  with  the  haughty  courage  of  the  Republic,  which 
commanded  victory,  by  not  admitting  the  possibility  of 
defeat.  { 

This  deity  is  believed  by  Creuzer  and  others  to  have 
had  an  Indian  origin,  and  his  name  to  have  been  derived 
from  the  Sanskrit  “Jan,”  to  be  born.  He  resembles  no 
Greek  god,  and  very  probably  travelled  all  the  way  from 
Bactria  Rome. 

*  And  so  out  word  “janitor”  conies  to  us  from  this  very  old  Italian 
deity. 

+  Ampere,  L’Histoire  Romaine. 

.4:  This  seems  to  us  more  probable  than  Buttman’s  opinion,  that  the 
temple  of  Janus  was  originally  by  the  gate  of  the  city,  which  gate  was 
open  in  war  and  closed  in  peace.  In  practi 00,  it  would  probably  be  dif- 
Iferent. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


323 


On  the  Kalends  of  January,  which  was  the  chief  feast 
of  J anus,  it  was  the  duty  of  every  Roman  citizen  to  he 
careful  that  all  he  thought,  said,  or  did  should  be  pure  and 
true,  because  this  day  determined  the  character  of  the 
year.  All  dressed  themselves  in  holiday  garb,  avoided 
oaths,  abusive  words,  and  quarrels,  gave  presents,  and 
wished  each  other  a  happy  year.  The  presents  were  lit¬ 
tle  coins  with  a  Janus-head,  and  sweetmeats.  It  was 
customary  to  sacrifice  to  Janus  at  the  beginning  of  all 
important  business. 

Janus  was  the  great  god  of  the  Sabines,  and  his  most 
ancient  temple  appears  to  have  been  on  Mount  Janicu¬ 
lum.*  The  altar  of  Fontus,  son  of  Janus,  and  the  tomb 
of  Numa,  a  Sabine  king,  were  both  supposed  to  be  there. 
Ovid  also  *(*  makes  Janus  say  that  the  Janiculum  was  his 
citadel.  Ampere  remarks  as  a  curious  coincidence,  that 
this  god,  represented  with  a  key  in  his  hand,  as  the  heav¬ 
enly  gate-keeper,  should  have  his  home  on  the  hill  close 
to  the  Vatican,  where  is  the  tomb  of  Peter,  who  also 
bears  a  key  with  the  same  significance.  The  same  writer 
regards  the  Sabines  as  inhabiting  the  hills  of  Rome  before 
the  Pelasgi  came  and  gave  this  name  of  Roma  (meaning 
“strength”)  to  their  small  fortress  on  one  side  of  the 
Palatine. 

In  every  important  city  of  Etruria  there  were  temples 
to  the  three  gods,  Jupiter,  Juno,  and  Minerva.  In  like 
manner,  the  magnificent  temple  of  the  Capitol  at  Rome 
consisted  of  three  parts,  —  a  nave,  sacred  to  Jupiter;  and 
two  wings  or  aisles,  one  dedicated  to  Juno  and  the  other 
to  Minerva.  This  temple  was  nearly  square,  being  two 
hundred  and  fifteen  feet  long  and  two  hundred  feet  wide ; 
and  the  wealth  accumulated  in  it  was  immense.  The 
walls  and  roof  were  of  marble,  covered  with  gold  and 
silver. 

Jupiter,  the  chief  god  of  Rome,  according  to  most  phi¬ 
lologists,  derives  his  name  (like  the  Greek  z*6r)  from  the 

*  “  Quis  ignorat  vel  dictum  vel  conditum  a  Jano  Janiculum  ?  ”  Solinus, 
II.  3,  quoted  by  Ampere. 

t  “  Arx  mea  collis  erat,  quern  cultrix  nomine  nostro 

Nuncupat  liaec  retas,  Janiculumque  vocat.”  —  Fasti,  I.  245. 


324 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


far-away  Sanskrit  word  “  Div  ”  or  “  Diu,”  indicating  the 
splendor  of  heaven  or  of  day.  Ju-piter  is  from  “  Djaus- 
Pitar,”  which  is  the  Sanskrit  for  Father  of  Heaven,  or 
else  from  “  Diu-pitar,”  Father  of  Light.  He  is,  at  all 
events,  the  equivalent  of  the  Olympian  Zeus.  He 
carries  the  lightning,  and,  under  many  appellations,  is  the 
supreme  god  of  the  skies.  Many  temples  were  erected  to 
him  in  Rome,  under  various  designations.  He  was  called 
Pluvius,  Fulgurator,  Tonans,  Fulminator,  Imbricitor,  Sere- 
nator,  —  from  the  substantives  designating  rain,  lightning, 
thunder,  and  the  serene  sky.  Anything  struck  with  light¬ 
ning  became  sacred,  and  was  consecrated  to  J upiter.  As 
the  supreme  being  he  was  called  Optimus  Maximus,  also 
Imperator,  Victor,  Invictus,  Stator,  Praedator,  Trium- 
phator,  and  Urbis  Custos.  And  temples  or  shrines  were 
erected  to  him  under,  all  these  names,  as  the  head  of  the 
armies,  and  commander-in-chief  of  the  legions  ;  as  Con¬ 
queror,  as  Invincible,  as  the  Turner  of  Flight,  as  the  God 
of  Booty,  and  as  the  Guardian  of  the  City.  There  is  said 
to  have  been  in  Rome  three  hundred  Jupiters,  which  must 
mean  that  Jupiter  was  worshipped  under  three  hundred 
different  attributes.  Another  name  of  this  god  was 
Elicius,  from  the  belief  that  a  method  existed  of  eliciting 
or  drawing  down  the  lightning  ;  which  belief  probably 
arose  from  an  accidental  anticipation  of  Dr.  Franklin’s 
famous  experiment.  There  were  no  such  myths  told 
about  Jupiter  as  concerning  the  Greek  Zeus.  The  Latin 
deity  was  a  much  more  solemn  person,  his  whole  time 
occupied  with  the  care  of  the  city  and  state.  But  traces 
of  his  origin  as  a  ruler  of  the  atmosphere  remained  rooted 
in  language ;  and  the  Romans,  in  the  time  of  Augustus, 
spoke  familiarly  of  “  a  cold  Jupiter,”  for  a  cold  sky,  and 
of  a  “bad  Jupiter,”  for  stormy  weather. 

The  Juno  of  the  Capitol  was  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  and 
in  this  sense  was  the  female  Jupiter.  But  Juno  was  also 
the  goddess  of  womanhood,  and  had  the  epithets  of  Virgi- 
nensis,  Matrona,  and  Opigena ;  that  is,  the  friend  of  vir¬ 
gins,  of  matrons,  and  the  daughter  of  help.  Her  chief 
festival  was  the  Matronalia,  on  the  first  of  March,  hence 
called  the  “  Women’s  Kalends.”  On  this  day  presents 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


325 


were  given  to  women  by  their  husbands  and  friends.  Juno 
was  the  patroness  of  marriage,  and  her  month  of  June  was 
believed  to  be  very  favorable  for  wedlock.  As  Juno  Lu- 
cina  she  presided  over  birth  ;  as  Mater  Matuta,*  over  chil¬ 
dren  ;  as  Juno  Moneta,  over  the  mint. 

The  name  of  Minerva,  the  Roman  Athene,  is  said  to  be 
derived  from  an  old  Etruscan  word  signifying  mental 
action.*)-  In  the  songs  of  the  Sabians  the  word  “  prome- 
nervet  ”  is  used  for  “  monet.”  The  first  syllable  evidently 
contains  the  root,  which  in  all  Aryan  languages  implies 
thought.  The  Trinity  of  the  Capitol,  therefore,  united 
Power,  Wisdom,  and  Affection,  as  Jupiter,  Minerva,  and 
Juno.  The  statue  of  Minerva  was  placed  in  schools.  She 
had  many  temples  and  festivals,  and  one  of  the  former 
was  dedicated  to  her  as  Minerva  Medica. 

The  Roman  pantheon  contained  three  classes  of  gods 
and  goddesses.  First,  the  old  Italian  divinities,  Etruscan, 
Latin,  and  Sabine,  naturalized  and  adopted  by  the  state. 
Secondly,  the  pale  abstractions  of  the  understanding,  in¬ 
vented  by  the  College  of  Pontiffs  for  moral  and  political 
purposes.  And  thirdly,  the  gods  of  Greece,  imported, 
with  a  change  of  name,  by  the  literary  admirers  and 
imitators  of  Hellas. 

The  genuine  deities  of  the  Roman  religion  were  all  of 
the  first  order.  Some  of  them,  like  Janus,  Vertumnus, 
Eaunus,  Yesta,  retained  their  original  character ;  others 
were  deliberately  confounded  with  some  Greek  deity. 
Thus  Venus,  an  old  Latin  or  Sabine  goddess  to  whom  Titus 
Tatius  erected  a  temple  as  Venus  Cloacina,  and  Servius 
Tullius  another  as  Venus  LibertinaJ  was  afterward  trans¬ 
formed  into  the  Greek  Aphrodite,  goddess  of  love.  If  it 
be  true,  as  is  asserted  by  ISTsevius  and  Plautus,  that  she 
was  the  goddess  of  gardens,  as  Venus  Hortensis  and  Venus 

*  Mater  Matuta  (“matutina,”  matinal)  was  a  Latin  goddess  of  the 
dawn,  who  was  absorbed  into  Juno,  as  often  happened  to  the  old  Italian 
deities.  Hartung  says:  “There  was  no  limit  to  the  superficial  levity 
with  which  the  Romans  changed  their  worship.” 

+  The  Etruscans  worshipped  a  goddess  named  Menerfa  or  Menfra.  — 
Heffter. 

X  Heffter,  p.  525.  Cloaca  is  derived  from  clucre,  which  means  to  wash 
away.  Libertina  or  Libitina  is  the  goddess  of  funerals. 


326 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Fruti,  then  she  may  have  been  originally  the  female  Ver- 
tumnus.  So  Diana  was  originally  Diva  Jana,  and  was 
simply  the  female  Janus,  until  she  was '  transformed  into 
the  Greek  Artemis. 

The  second  class  of  Eoman  divinities  were  those  manu¬ 
factured  by  the  pontiffs  for  utilitarian  purposes,  —  almost 
the  only  instance  in  the  history  of  religion  of  such  a  de¬ 
liberate  piece  of  god-making.  The  purpose  of  the  pon¬ 
tiffs  was  excellent ;  but  the  result,  naturally,  was  small. 
The  worship  of  such  abstractions  as  Hope  (Spes),  Fear 
(Pallor),  Concord  (Concordia),  Courage  (Virtus),  Justice 
(iEquitas),  Clemency  (Clementia),  could  have  little  in¬ 
fluence,  since  it  must  have  been  apparent  to  the  worship¬ 
per  himself  that  these  were  not  real  beings,  but  only  his 
own  conceptions,  thrown  heavenward. 

The  third  class  of  deities  were  those  adopted  from 
Greece.  New  deities,  like  Apollo,  were  imported,  and  the 
old  ones  Hellenized.  The  Eomans  had  no  statues  of  their 
gods  in  early  times  ;  this  custom  they  learned  from  Greece. 
“  A  full  river  of  influence,”  says  Cicero,  “  and  not  a  little 
brook,  has  flowed  into  Eome  out  of  Greece.”  *  They  sent 
to  Delphi  to  inquire  of  the  Greek  oracle.  In  a  few  dec¬ 
ades,  says  Hartung,  the  Eoman  religion  was  wholly 
transformed  by  this  Greek  influence  ;  and  that  happened 
while  the  senate  and  priests  were  taking  the  utmost  care 
that  not  an  iota  of  the  old  ceremonies  should  be  altered. 
Meantime  the  object  was  to  identify  the  objects  of  wor¬ 
ship  in  other  countries  with  those  worshipped  at  home. 
This  was  done  in  an  arbitrary  and  superficial  way,  and 
caused  great  confusion  in  the  mythologies.  *)*  Accidental 
resemblances,  slight  coincidences  of  names,  were  sufficient 
for  the  identification  of  two  gods.  As  long  as  the  ser¬ 
vice  of  the  temple  was  unaltered,  the  priests  troubled 
themselves  very  little  about  such  changes.  In  this  way, 
the  twelve  gods  of  Olympus  —  Zeus,  Poseidon,  Apol¬ 
lo,  Ares,  Ilephsestos,  Hermes,  Here,  Athene,  Artemis, 
Aphrodite,  Hestia,  and  Demeter  —  were  naturalized  or 
identified  as  Jupiter,  Neptune,  Apollo,  Mars,  Vulcan, 
Mercury,  Juno,  Minerva,  Diana,  Venus,  Vesta,  and  Ceres. 

+  Hartung. 


*  Republic,  II.  19. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


327 


Dionysos  became  Liber  or  Bacchus ;  Persephone,  Proser¬ 
pina  ;  and  the  Muses  were  accepted  as  the  Greeks  had 
imagined  them. 

To  find  the  true  Roman  worship,  therefore,  we  must 
divest  their  deities  of  these  Greek  habiliments,  and  go 
back  to  their  original  Etruscan  or  Latin  characters. 

Among  the  Etruscans  we  find  one  doctrine  unknown  to 
the  Greeks  and  not  adopted  by  the  Romans  ;  that,  namely, 
of  the  higher  “  veiled  deities,”  *  superior  to  Jupiter.  They 
also  had  a  dodecad  of  six  male  and  six  female  deities,  the 
Consentes  and  Complices,  making  a  council  of  gods,  whom 
Jupiter  consulted  in  important  cases.  Vertumnus  was 
an  Etruscan ;  so,  according  to  Ottfried  Midler,  was  the 
Genius.  So  are  the  Lares,  or  household  protectors,  and 
Charun,  or  Charon,  a  power  of  the  under- world.  The 
minute  system  of  worship  was  derived  by  Rome  from 
Etruria.  The  whole  system  of  omens,  especially  by  light¬ 
ning,  came  from  the  same  source. 

After  Janus,  and  three  Capitoline  gods  (Jupiter,  Juno, 
and  Minerva),  above  mentioned,  the  Romans  worshipped 
a  series  of  deities  who  may  be  classed  as  follows :  — 

I.  Gods  representing  the  powers  of  nature  :  — 

1.  Sol,  the  Sun.  A  Sabine  deity.  In  later  times  the 
poets  attributed  to  him  all  the  characters  of  Helios ;  but 
as  a  Roman  god,  he  never  emerged  into  his  own  day¬ 
light. 

2.  Luna,  the  Moon.  Also  regarded  as  of  Sabine  origin. 

3.  Mater  Matuta.  Mother  of  Day,  that  is,  the  dawn. 
Worshipped  at  the  Matronalia  in  June,  as  the  possessor 
of  all  motherly  qualities,  and  especially  as  the  protector 
of  children  from  ill-treatment.  As  the  storms  were  apt  to 
go  down  at  morning,  she  was  appealed  to  to  protect  mari¬ 
ners  from  shipwreck.  The  consul  Tib.  Semp.  Gracchus 
dedicated  a  temple  to  her  b.  c.  176. 

4.  Tempestates,  the  tempests.  A  temple  was  dedicated 
to  the  storms,  b.  c.  259. 

5.  Vulcanus.  This  name  is  supposed  to  be  from  the 

*  “Diis  quos  superiores  et  involutes  vocant.” — Seneca,  Qusest.  Nat., 
II.  41. 


328 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


same  root  as  “fulgeo,”  to  shine.  He  was  an  old  Italian 
deity.  His  temple  is  mentioned  as  existing  B.  c.  491. 

6.  Fontus,  the  god  of  fountains.  The  Eomans  valued 
water  so  highly,  that  they  erected  altars  and  temples  to 
this  divinity,  and  had  a  feast  of  fountains  (Fontinalia)  on 
October  13th.  There  were  also  goddesses  of  fountains,  as 
Lympha  Juturna,  the  goddess  of  mineral  springs.  Egeria 
is  the  only  nymph  of  a  fountain  mentioned  in  Eoman 
mythology. 

7.  I)ivus  pater  Tiberinus,  or  Father  Tiber,  was  of 
course  the  chief  river  god.  The  augurs  called  him  Coluber, 
the  snake,  from  his  meandering  and  bending  current. 

8.  Neptunus.  The  origin  of  this  word  has  been  a 
great  puzzle  to  the  learned,  who,  however,  connect  it 
with  nebula,  a  cloud,  as  the  clouds  come  from  the  sea. 
He  had  his  temple  and  his  festivals  at  Eome. 

Other  deities  connected  with  the  powers  of  nature  were 
Portunus,  the  god  of  harbors ;  Salacia,  a  goddess  of  the 
salt  sea ;  Tranquillitas,  the  goddess  of  calm  weather. 

II.  Gods  of  human  relations :  — 

1.  Vesta,  an  ancient  Latin  goddess,  and  one  of  the 
oldest  and  most  revered.  She  was  the  queen  of  the 
hearth  and  of  the  household  fire.  She  was  also  the 
protector  of  the  house,  associated  with  the  Lares  and 
Penates.  Some  offering  was  due  to  her  at  every  meal. 
She  sanctified  the  home. 

Afterward,  when  all  Eome  became  one  vast  family, 
Vesta  became  the  goddess  of  this  public  home,  and  her 
temple  was  the  fireside  of  the  city,  in  which  burned 
always  the  sacred  fire,  watched  by  the  vestal  virgins. 
In  this  worship,  and  its  associations,  we  find  the  best  side 
of  Eoman  manners,  —  the  love  of  home,  the  respect  for 
family  life,  the  hatred  of  impurity  and  immodesty.  She 
wtis  also  called  “the  mother,”  and  qualified  as  Mater 
Stata,  that  is,  the  immovable  mother. 

2.  The  Penates  and  Lares.  These  deities  were  also 
peculiarly  Eoman.  The  Lar,  or  Lares,  were  supposed  to  be 
the  souls  of  ancestors  which  resided  in  the  home  and 
guarded  it.  Their  images  were  kept  in  an  oratory  or 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


329 


domestic  chapel,  called  a  Lararium,  and  were  crowned  by 
the  master  of  the  house  to  make  them  propitious.  The 
paterfamilias  conducted  all  the  domestic  worship  of  the 
household,  whether  of  prayers  or  sacrifices,  according  to 
the  maxim  of  Cato,  “  Scito  dominum  pro  tota  familia  rem 
divinam  facere.”  *  The  Penates  were  beings  of  a  higher 
order  than  the  Lares,  but  having  much  the  same  offices. 
Their  name  was  from  the  words  denoting  the  interior  of 
the  mansion  (Penetralia,  Penitus).  They  took  part  in  all 
the  joys  and  sorrows  of  the  family.  To  go  home  was  “to 
return  to  one’s  Penates.”  In  the  same  way,  “  Lar  meus  ” 
meant  “  my  house  ”  ;  “  Lar  conductus,”  “  a  hired  house  ”  ; 
“Larem  mutare”  meant  to  change  one’s  house.  Thus 
the  Roman  in  his  home  felt  himself  surrounded  by  invisi¬ 
ble  friends  and  guardians.  No  other  nation,  except  the 
Chinese,  have  carried  this  religion  of  home  so  far.  This 
is  the  tender  side  of  the  stern  Koman  character.  Very 
little  of  pathos  or  sentiment  appears  in  Roman  poetry, 
but  the  lines  by  Catullus  to  his  home  are  as  tender  as 
anything  in  modern  literature.  The  little  peninsula  of 
Sirmio  on  the  Lago  di  Garda  has  been  glorified  by  these 
few  words. 

3.  The  Genius.  The  worship  of  the  genius  of  a  per¬ 
son  or  place  was  also  peculiarly  Italian.  Each  man  had 
his  genius,  from  whom  his  living  power  and  vital  force 
came.  Tertullian  speaks  of  the  genius  of  places.  On 
coins  are  found  the  Genius  of  Rome.  Almost  everything 
had  its  genius,  —  nations,  colonies,  princes,  the  senate, 
sleep,  the  theatre.  The  marriage-bed  is  called  genial, 
because  guarded  by  a  genius.  All  this  reminds  us  of  the 
Fravashi  of  the  Avesta  and  of  the  Persian  monuments. 
Yet  the  Genius  also  takes  his  place  among  the  highest  gods. 

III.  Deities  of  the  human  soul:  — 

1.  Mens,  Mind,  Intellect. 

2.  Pudicitia,  Chastity. 

3.  Pietas,  Piety,  Reverence  for  Parents. 

4.  Fides,  Fidelity. 

*  “De  re  rustica”  ;  quoted  by  Merivale  In  the  Preface  to  The  Con¬ 
version  of  the  Roman  Empire. 


530 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


5.  Concordia,  Concord. 

6.  Virtus,  Courage. 

7.  Spes,  Hope. 

8.  Pallor  or  Payor,  Fear. 

9.  Voluptas,  Pleasure. 

IY.  Deities  of  rural  and  other  occupations :  — 

1.  Tellus,  the  Earth. 

2.  Saturnus,  Saturn.  The  root  of  this  name  is  Sao  = 
Sero,  to  sow.  Saturn  is  the  god  of  planting  and  sowing. 

3.  Ops,  goddess  of  the  harvest. 

4.  Mars.  Originally  an  agricultural  god,  dangerous  to 
crops  ;  afterwards  god  of  war. 

5.  Silvanus,  the  wood  god. 

6.  Faunus,  an  old  Italian  deity,  the  patron  of  agricul¬ 
ture. 

7.  Terminus,  an  old  Italian  deity,  the  guardian  of 
limits  and  boundaries. 

8.  Ceres,  goddess  of  the  cereal  grasses. 

9.  Liber,  god  of  the  vine,  and  of  wine. 

10.  Bona  Dea,  the  good  goddess.  The  worship  of  the 
good  goddess  was  imported  from  Greece  in  later  times ; 
and  perhaps  its  basis  was  the  worship  of  Demeter.  The 
temple  of  the  good  goddess  was  on  Mount  Aventine.  At 
her  feast  on  the  1st  of  May  all  suggestions  of  the  male 
sex  were  banished  from  the  house  ;  no  wine  must  be 
drunk ;  the  myrtle,  as  a  symbol  of  love,  was  removed. 
The  idea  of  the  feast  was  of  a  chaste  marriage,  as  helping 
to  preserve  the  human  race. 

11.  Magna  Mater,  or  Cybele.  This  was  a  foreign  wor¬ 
ship,  but  early  introduced  at  Eome. 

12.  Flora.  She  was  an  original  goddess  of  Italy,  pre¬ 
siding  over  flowers  and  blossoms.  Great  license  was  prac¬ 
tised  at  her  worship. 

13.  Vertumnus,  the  god  of  gardens,  was  an  old  Italian 
deity,  existing  before  the  foundation  of  Eome. 

14.  Pomona,  goddess  of  the  harvest. 

18.  Pales.  A  rural  god,  protecting  cattle.  At  his 
feast  men  and  cattle  were  purified. 

The  Eomans  had  many  other  deities,  whose  worship 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


331 


was  more  or  less  popular.  But  those  now  mentioned 
were  the  principal  ones.  This  list  shows  that  the  powers 
of  earth  were  more  objects  of  reverence  than  the  heaven¬ 
ly  bodies.  The  sun  and  stars  attracted  this  agricultural 
people  less  than  the  spring  and  summer,  seedtime  and 
harvest.  Among  the  Italians  the  country  was  before  the 
city,  and  Rome  was  founded  by  country  people. 

§  3.  Worship  and  Ritual. 

The  Roman  ceremonial  worship  was  very  elaborate  and 
minute,  applying  to  every  part  of  daily  life.  It  consisted 
in  sacrifices,  prayers,  festivals,  and  the  investigation  by 
augurs  and  haruspices  of  the  will  of  the  gods  and  the 
course  of  future  events.  The  Romans  accounted  them¬ 
selves  an  exceedingly  religious  people,  because  their  re¬ 
ligion  was  so  intimately  connected  with  the  affairs  of 
home  and  state. 

The  Romans  distinguished  carefully  between  things 
sacred  and  profane.  This  word  “  profane  ”  comes  from  the 
root  “  fari,”  to  speak  ;  because  the  gods  were  supposed  to 
speak  to  men  by  symbolic  events.  A  fane  is  a  place  thus 
consecrated  by  some  divine  event ;  a  profane  place,  one 
not  consecrated*  But  that  which  man  dedicates  to  the 
gods  (( dedicai  or  dicat)  is  sacred,  or  consecrated.*)"  Every 
place  which  was  to  be  dedicated  was  first  “  liberated  ”  by 
the  augur  from  common  uses ;  then  “  consecrated  ”  to  di¬ 
vine  uses  by  the  pontiff.  A  “  temple  ”  is  a  place  thus 
separated,  or  cut  off  from  other  places  ;  for  the  root  of 
this  word,  like  that  of  “  tempus  ”  (time)  is  the  same  as  the 
Greek  renvoi,  to  cut. 

The  Roman  year  was  full  of  festivals  ( ferice )  set  apart 
for  religious  uses.  It  was  declared  by  the  pontiffs  a  sin 
to  do  any  common  work  on  these  days,  but  works  of  ne¬ 
cessity  were  allowed.  These  festivals  were  for  particular 
gods,  in  honor  of  great  events  in  the  history  of  Rome,  or 
of  rural  occurrences,  days  of  purification  and  atonement, 

*  From  the  same  root  come  our  words  “fate,”  “fanatic,”  etc.  “Fa- 
naticum  dicitur  arbor  fulmine  icta.”  —  Festus,  69. 

t  From  “sacrare”  or  “  consecrare.”  Hence  sacrament  and  sacerdo¬ 
tal. 


332 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


family  feasts,  or  feasts  in  honor  of  the  dead.  The  old 
Roman  calendar  *  was  as  carefully  arranged  as  that  of 
modern  Rome.  The  day  began  at  midnight.  The  follow¬ 
ing  is  a  view  of  the  Roman  year  in  its  relation  to  festi¬ 
vals  :  — 

January .' 

I.  Feast  of  Janus ,  the  god  of  beginnings. 

9.  Agonalia. 

II.  Carmentalia.  In  honor  of  the  nymph  Carmenta, 
a  woman’s  festival. 

16.  Dedication  of  the  Temple  of  Concord. 

31.  Feast  of  the  Penates. 

February. 

1.  Feast  of  Juno  Sospita,  the  Savior:  an  old  goddess. 

13.  Faunalia ,  dedicated  to  Faunus  and  the  rural  gods. 

15.  Luperealia.  Feast  of  fruitfulness. 

17.  Fornacalia.  Feast  of  the  oven  goddess  Fornax. 

18  to  28.  The  Februatio,  or  feast  of  purification  and 
atonement,  and  the  Feralia,  or  feast  of  the  dead.  Fe- 
bruus  was  an  old  Etrurian  god  of  the  under- world.  Also, 
the  Charistia ,  a  family  festival  for  putting  an  end  to  quar¬ 
rels  among  relations. 

23.  Feast  of  Terminus ,  god  of  boundaries.  Boundary- 
stones  anointed  and  crowned. 

March. 

1.  Feast  of  Mars.  Also,  the  Matronalia.  The  Salii, 
priests  of  Mars,  go  their  rounds,  singing  old  hymns. 

6.  Feast  of  Vesta. 

7.  Feast  of  Vejovis  or  Vedius,  i.  e.  the  boy  Jupiter. 

14.  Equiria,  or  horse-races  in  honor  of  Mars. 

15.  Feast  of  Anna-Pcrenna ,  goddess  of  health. 

17.  Liber  alia,  Feast  of  Bacchu§.  Young  men  invested 
with  the  Toga-Virilis  on  this  day. 

19  to  23.  Feast  of  Minerva,  for  five  days.  Offerings 
made  to  her  by  all  mechanics,  artists,  and  scholars. 

*  The  word  “calendar”  is  itself  derived  from  the  Roman  “Kalends,” 
the  first  day  of  the  month. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


333 


April. 

1.  Feast  of  Venus ,  to  whom  the  month  is  sacred. 

*4.  Megctlesia.  Feast  of  Cybele  and  Altys.  It  lasted 
six  days,  and  was  the  Roman  analogue  of  the  feast  of 
Ceres  in  Greece  and  of  Isis  in  Egypt. 

12.  Cerealia.  Feast  of  Ceres.  Games  in  the  circus. 

15.  Fordicicia.  Feast  of  cows. 

21.  Falililia.  Feast  of  Pales,  and  of  the  founding  of 
Rome. 

23.  Vinalia.  Feast  of  new  wine. 

25.  Robigalia.  Feast  of  the  goddess  of  blight,  Robigo. 

28.  Floralia.  Feast  of  the  goddess  Flora ;  very  licen¬ 
tious. 

May. 

1.  Feast  of  the  Bona  Dea ,  the  good  goddess;  otherwise 
Maia,  Ops,  Tellus,  or  the  Earth.  This  was  the  feast  held 
by  women  secretly  in  the  house  of  the  pontiff. 

9.  Lemur  alia.  Feast  of  the  departed  spirits  or  ghosts. 

12.  Games  to  Mars. 

23.  Tubilustria,  to  consecrate  wind  instruments. 

June. 

1.  Feast  of  Carna,  goddess  of  the  internal  organs  of 
the  body,  and  of  Juno  Moneta. 

4.  Feast  of  Bellona. 

5.  Feast  of  Bens  Fidius. 

7  to  15.  Feast  of  Vesta. 

19.  Matralia.  Feast  of  Mater  Matuta. 

Other  lesser  festivals  in  this  month  to  Summanus,  For - 
tuna,  Fortis ,  Jupiter  Stator,  etc. 

July. 

1.  Day  devoted  to  changing  residences,  like  the  1st  of 
May  in  New  York. 

4.  Fortuna  Muliebris. 

5.  Populifuga.  In  memory  of  the  people’s  flight,  on 
some  occasion,  afterward  forgotten. 

7.  Feast  of  Juno  Caprotina. 

15.  Feast  of  Castor  and  Pollux. 


334 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Other  festivals  in  this  month  were  the  Lucaria,  Ncptu* 
nalia,  and  Furinalia. 

August 

1.  Games  to  Mars. 

17.  Feast  of  the  god  Portumnus. 

18.  Consualia,  feast  of  Consus.  Rape  of  the  Sabines. 
23.  Vulcanalia ,  to  avert  fires. 

25.  Opeconsivia.  Feast  of  Ops  Consiva. 

The  chief  feasts  in  this  month  were  the  games  (. Ludi 
Magni  or  Romani)  in  honor  of  Jupiter,  Juno,  and  Mi¬ 
nerva. 

October. 

13.  Fontinalia.  Feast  of  fountains,  when  the  springs 
were  strewed  with  flowers. 

15.  Sacrifice  of  a  horse  to  Mars. 

The  feasts  in  November  are  unimportant. 

December. 

5.  Faunalia,  in  honor  of  Faunus. 

19.  Saturnalia,  sacred  to  Saturn.  A  Roman  thanks¬ 
giving  for  the  harvest.  It  lasted  seven  days,  during 
which  the  slaves  had  their  liberty,  in  memory  of  the  age 
of  Saturn,  when  all  were  equal.  The  rich  kept  open 
table  to  all  comers,  and  themselves  waited  on  the  slaves. 
Presents  were  interchanged,  schools  were  closed.  The 
Senate  did  not  sit. 

Thus  religion  everywhere  met  the  public  life  of  the 
Roman  by  its  festivals,  and  laid  an  equal  yoke  on  his 
private  life  by  its  requisition  of  sacrifices,  prayers,  and 
auguries.  All  pursuits  must  be  conducted  according  to  a 
system,  carefully  laid  down  by  the  College  of  Pontiffs. 
Sacrifices  and  prayers  of  one  or  another  kind  were  de¬ 
manded  during  most  of  the  occasions  of  life.  Hidden  in 
our  word  “  inaugurate  ”  is  the  record  of  the  fact  that  noth¬ 
ing  could  be  properly  begun  without  the  assistance  of  the 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


335 


augurs.  Sacrifices  of  lustration  and  expiation  were  very 
common,  not  so  much  for  moral  offences  as  for  ceremo¬ 
nial  mistakes.  The  doctrine  of  the  opus  operatum  was 
supreme  in  Boman  religion.  The  intention  was  of  little 
importance ;  the  question  was  whether  the  ceremony  had 
been  performed  exactly  in  accordance  with  rule.  If  not, 
it  must  be  done  again.  Sometimes  fifty  or  a  hundred 
victims  were  killed  before  the  priestly  etiquette  was  con¬ 
tented.  Sometimes  magistrates  must  resign  because  the 
college  of  augurs  suspected  some  informality  in  the  cere¬ 
monies  of  their  election.  Laws  were  annulled  and  judi¬ 
cial  proceedings  revoked  for  the  same  reason.  If  the  au¬ 
gurs  declared  the  signs  unfavorable,  a  public  meeting 
must  he  adjourned  and  no  business  done.  A  single  mis¬ 
take  in  the  form  of  a  prayer  would  make  it  ineffectual. 
If  a  man  went  out  to  walk,  there  was  a  form  to  he  re¬ 
cited  ;  if  he  mounted  his  chariot,  another.  All  these 
religious  acts  were  of  the  nature  of  charms ,  which  acted 
on  the  gods  by  an  inherent  power,  and  compelled  them  to 
be  favorable,  whatever  their  own  wishes  might  be.  The 
gods  were,  therefore,  as  much  the  slaves  of  external  me¬ 
chanical  laws  as  the  Bomans  themselves.  In  reality,  the 
supreme  god  of  Borne  was  law,  in  the  form  of  rule.  But 
these  rules  afterward  expanded,  as  the  Boman  civilization 
increased,  into  a  more  generous  jurisprudence.  Begular- 
ity  broadened  into  justice.*  But  for  a  long  period  the 
whole  of  the  Boman  organic  law  was  a  system  of  hard 
external  method.  And  the  rise  of  law  as  justice  and 
reason  was  the  decline  of  religion  as  mere  prescription 
and  rule.  This  one  change  is  the  key  to  the  dissolution 
of  the  Boman  system  of  religious  practices. 

The  seat  of  Boman  worship  in  the  oldest  times  was  the 
Begia  in  the  Via  Sacra,  near  the  Forum.  This  was  the 
house  of  the  chief  pontiff,  and  here  the  sacrifices  were 
performed  •f*  by  the  Bex  Sacrorum.  Near  by  was  the 
temple  of  Vesta.  The  Palatine  Hill  was  regarded  as  the 
home  of  the  Latin  gods,  while  the  Quirinal  was  that  of 

*  See  Merivale,  The  Conversion  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Lect.  IV. 
p.  74. 

+  Dollinger,  Gentile  and  Jew.  Funke,  Real  Lexicon.  Festus. 


336 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


the  Sabine  deities.  But  the  Penates  of  Rome  remained 
at  Lavinium,  the  old  metropolis  of  the  Latin  Confedera¬ 
tion,  and  mother  of  the  later  city.  Every  one  of  the 
highest  officers  of  Rome  was  obliged  to  go  and  sacrifice  to 
the  ancient  gods,  at  this  mother  city  of  Lavinium,  before 
entering  on  his  ofbce. 

The  old  worship  of  Rome  was  free  from  idolatry.  Ju¬ 
piter,  Juno,  Janus,  Ops,  Yesta,  were  not  represented  by 
idols.  This  feature  was  subsequently  imported  by  means 
of  Hellenic  influences  coming  through  Cuma  and  other 
cities  of  Magna  Grsecia.  By  the  same  channels  came  the 
Sibylline  books.  There  were  ten  Sibyls,  —  the  Persian, 
Libyan,  Delphian,  Cumsean,  Erythraean,  Samian,  Amal- 
thsean,  Hellespontine,  Phrygian,  and  Tiburtine.  The 
Sibylline  books  authorized  or  commanded  the  worship  of 
various  Greek  gods  ;  they  were  intrusted  to  the  Decemviri. 

Roman  worship  was  at  first  administered  by  certain 
patrician  families,  and  this  was  continued  till  B.  c.  300, 
when  plebeians  were  allowed  to  enter  the  sacred  colleges. 
A  plebeian  became  Pontifex  Maximus,  for  the  first  time, 
B.  c.  253. 

The  pontiffs  (Pontifices)  derived  their  name  (bridge- 
builders)  from  a  bridge  over  the  Tiber,  which  it  was  their 
duty  to  build  and  repair  in  order  to  sacrifice  on  either 
bank.  They  possessed  the  supreme  authority  in  all 
matters  of  worship,  and  decided  questions  concerning 
marriage,  inheritance,  public  games. 

The  Elamens  were  the  priests  of  particular  deities.  The 
office  was  for  life,  and  there  were  fifteen  Flamens  in  all. 
The  Elamen  Dialis,  or  priest  of  Jupiter,  had  a  life  bur¬ 
dened  with  etiquette.  He  must  not  take  an  oath,  ride, 
have  anything  tied  with  knots  on  his  person,  see  armed 
men,  look  at  a  prisoner,  see  any  one  at  work  on  a  Festa, 
touch  a  goat,  or  dog,  or  raw  flesh,  or  yeast.  He  must  not 
bathe  in  the  open  air,  pass  a  night  outside  the  city,  and 
he  could  only  resign  his  office  on  the  death  of  his  wife. 
This  office  is  Pelasgic,  and  very  ancient. 

The  Salii  were  from  early  times  priests  of  Mars,  who 
danced  in  armor,  and  sang  old  hymns.  The  Luperci 
were  another  body  of  priests,  also  of  very  ancient  origin. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


337 


Other  colleges  of  priests  were  the  Epulones,  Curiones, 
Tities. 

The  Vestal  virgins  were  highly  honored  and  very  sacred. 
Their  work  was  to  tend  the  fire  of  Vesta,  and  prevent  the 
evil  omen  of  its  extinction.  They  were  appointed  by  the 
Pontifex  Maximus.  They  were  selected  when  very  young, 
and  could  resign  their  office  after  thirty  years  of  service. 
They  had  a  large  revenue,  enjoyed  the  highest  honors,  and 
to  strike  them  was  a  capital  offence.  If  a  criminal  about 
to  he  executed  met  them,  his  life  was  spared.  Consuls 
and  praetors  must  give  way  to  them  in  the  streets.  They 
assisted  at  the  theatres  and  at  all  public  entertainments. 
They  could  go  out  to  visit  and  to  dine  with  their  relations. 
Their  very  presence  protected  any  one  from  assault,  and 
their  intercession  must  not  be  neglected.  They  prepared 
the  sacred  cakes,  took  part  in  many  sacrifices,  and  had  the 
charge  of  a  holy  serpent,  keeping  his  table  supplied  with 
meat. 

The  duty  of  the  augurs  was  to  inquire  into  the  divine 
will ;  and  they  could  prevent  any  public  business  by  de¬ 
claring  the  omens  unfavorable.  The  name  is  probably 
derived  from  an  old  Aryan  word,  meaning  “sight”  or 
“  eye,”  which  has  come  to  us  in  the  Greek  aiyr],  and  the 
German  auge.  Our  words  “  auspicious  ”  and  “  auspi¬ 
cate  ”  are  derived  from  the  “  auspices,”  or  outlook  on  na¬ 
ture  which  these  seers  practised.  For  they  were  in  truth 
the  Roman  seers.  Their  business  was  to  look,  at  mid¬ 
night,  into  the  starry  heavens  ;  to  observe  thunder,  light¬ 
ning,  meteors  ;  the  chirping  or  flying  of  birds  ;  the  habits 
of  the  sacred  chickens  ;  the  appearance  of  quadrupeds ; 
or  casualties  of  various  kinds,  as  sneezing,  stumbling, 
spilling  salt  or  wine.  The  last  relics  of  these  supersti¬ 
tions  are  to  be  found  in  the  little  books  sold  in  Rome,  in 
which  the  fortunate  number  in  a  lottery  is  indicated  by 
such  accidents  and  events  of  common  life. 

The  Romans,  when  at  prayer,  were  in  the  habit  of  cov¬ 
ering  their  heads,  so  that  no  sound  of  evil  augury  might 
be  heard.  The  suppliant  was  to  kiss  his  right  hand,  and 
then  turn  round  in  a  circle  and  sit  down.  Many  for¬ 
mulae  of  prayers  were  prescribed  to  be  used  on  all  occa- 

15  T 


338 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


sions  of  life.  They  must  be  repeated  three  times,  at  least, 
to  insure  success.  Different  animals  were  sacrificed  to 
different  gods,  —  white  cattle  with  gilded  horns  to  Jupi¬ 
ter,-  a  bull  to  Apollo,  a  horse  to  Mars.  Sometimes  the 
number  of  victims  was  enormous.  On  Caligula’s  acces¬ 
sion,  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  victims  were  killed 
in  the  Roman  Empire. 

Lustrations  were  great  acts  of  atonement  or  purifica¬ 
tion,  and  are  often  described  by  ancient  writers.  The 
city  was  lustrated  by  a  grand  procession  of  the  four  col¬ 
leges  of  Augurs,  Pontifices,  Quindecemviri,  and  Septem- 
viri.  Lucan,  in  his  Pharsalia,  describes  such  a  lustra¬ 
tion.*  Tacitus  gives  a  like  description,  in  his  His¬ 
tory,*!*  of  the  ceremonies  attending  the  rebuilding  the 
Capitol.  On  an  auspicious  day,  beneath  a  serene  sky, 
the  ground  chosen  for  the  foundation  was  surrounded 
with  ribbons  and  flowers.  Soldiers,  selected  for  their 
auspicious  names,  brought  into  the  enclosure  branches 
from  the  trees  sacred  to  the  gods.  The  Vestal  virgins, 
followed  by  a  band  of  children,  sprinkled  the  place  with 
water  drawn  from  three  fountains  and  three  rivers.  ‘The 
praetor  and  the  pontiff  next  sacrificed  a  swine,  a  sheep, 
and  a  bull,  and  besought  Jupiter,  Juno,  and  Minerva  to 
favor  the  undertaking.  The  magistrates,  priests,  senators, 
and  knights  then  drew  the  corner-stone  to  its  place, 
throwing  in  ingots  of  gold  and  silver. 

The  Romans,  ever  anxious  about  the  will  of  the  gods, 
naturalized  among  themselves  the  Etruscan  institution 
of  the  Haruspices.  The  prodigies  observed  were  in  the 
entrails  of  animals  and  the  phenomena  of  nature.  The 
parts  of  the  entrails  observed  were  the  tongue,  lungs, 
heart,  liver,  gall  bladder,  spleen,  kidneys,  and  caul.  If  the 
head  of  the  right  lobe  of  the  liver  was  absent,  it  was  con¬ 
sidered  a  very  bad  omen.  If  certain  fissures  existed,  or 
were  absent,  it  was  a  portent  of  the  first  importance.  But 
the  Romans  were  a  very  practical  people,  and  not  easily 
deterred  from  their  purpose.  So  if  one  sacrifice  failed  they 
would  try  another  and  another,  until  the  portents  were 
favorable.  But  sceptical  persons  were  naturally  led  to  ask 


*  Book  I.  592. 


t  IV.  593. 


•  •  **i 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


0  9  O 

ouJ 

some  puzzling  questions,  sucli  as  these,  which  Cicero  puts 
in  his  work  on  Divination  :  *  How  can  a  cleft  in  a  liver  be 
connected,  by  any  natural  law,  with  my  acquisition  of  a 
property  ?  If  it  is  so  connected,  what  would  be  the  result, 
if  some  one  else,  who  was  about  to  lose  his  property,  had 
examined  the  same  victim  ?  If  you  answer  that  the  di¬ 
vine  energy,  which  extends  through  the  universe,  directs 
each  man  in  the  choice  of  a  victim,  then  how  happens  it 
that  a  man  having  first  had  an  unfavorable  omen,  by  try¬ 
ing  again  should  get  a  good  one  ?  How  happens  it  that 
a  sacrifice  to  one  deity  gives  a  favorable  sign,  and  that  to 
another  the  opposite  ?  But  these  criticisms  only  arrived 
after  the  old  Boman  faith  had  begun  to  decline. 

Funeral  solemnities  were  held  with  great  care  and 
pomp,  and  festivals  for  the  dead  were  regularly  celebrated. 
The  dead  father  or  mother  was  accounted  a  god,  and  yet  a 
certain  terror  of  ancestral  spectres  was  shown  by  a  practice 
of  driving  them  out  of  the  house  by  lustrations.  For  it 
was  uncertain  whether  the  paternal  Manes  were  good 
spirits,  Lares,  or  evil  spirits,  and  Lemures.  Consequently 
in  May  there  was  the  Lemuria,  or  feast  for  exorcising 
the  evil  spirits  from  houses  and  homes,  conducted  with 
great  solemnity. 

§  4.  The  Decay  of  the  Roman  Religion. 

“The  more  distinguished  a  Boman  became,”  says 
Mommsen,,  “  the  less  was  he  a  free  man.  The  omnipo¬ 
tence  of  law,  the  despotism  of  the  rule,  drove  him  into 
a  narrow  circle  of  thought  and  action,  and  his  credit  and 
influence  depended  on  the  sad  austerity  of  his  life.  The 
whole  duty  of  man,  with  the  humblest  and  greatest  of  the 
Bomans,  was  to  keep  his  house  in  order,  and  be  the 
*  obedient  servant  of  the  state.”  While  each  individual 
could  be  nothing  more  than  a  member  of  the  community, 
a  single  link  in  the  iron  chain  of  Boman  power ;  he,  on 
the  other  hand,  shared  the  glory  and  might  of  all-con¬ 
quering  Borne.  Never  was  such  esprit  do  corps  developed, 
never  such  intense  patriotism,  never  such  absolute  sub- 

*  De  Divinatione,  II.  12,  etc. 


340 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


servience  and  sacrifice  of  tlie  individual  to  tlie  community. 
But  as  man  is  manifold  and  cannot  be  forever  confined  to 
a  single  form  of  life,  a  reaction  against  this  narrow  patri¬ 
otism  was  to  be  expected  in  the  interest  of  personal 
freedom,  and  it  came  very  naturally  from  Greek  influ¬ 
ences.  The  Roman  could  not  contemplate  the  exuberant 
development  of  Greek  thought,  art,  literature,  society, 
without  bitterly  feeling  how  confined  was  his  own  range, 
how  meagre  and  empty  his  own  life.  Hence,  very  early, 
Roman  society  began  to  be  Iiellenized,  but  especially 
after  the  unification  of  Italy.  To  quote  Mommsen  once 
more :  “  The  Greek  civilization  was  grandly  human  and 
cosmopolitan ;  and  Rome  not  only  was  stimulated  by  this 
influence,  but  was  penetrated  by  it  to  its  very  centre.” 
Even  in  politics  there  was  a  new  school,  whose  fixed  idea 
was  the  consolidation  and  propagandism  of  republicanism  ; 
but  this  Philhellenism  showed  itself  especially  in  the 
realm  of  thought  and  faith.  As  the  old  faith  died,  more 
ceremonies  were  added ;  for  as  life  goes  out,  forms  come 
in.  As  the  winter  of  unbelief  lowers  the  stream  of  piety, 
the  ice  of  ritualism  accumulates  along  its  banks.  In 
addition  to  the  three  colleges  of  Pontiffs,  Haru spices,  and 
Quindecemviri,  another  of  Epulones,  whose  business  was 
to  attend  to  the  religious  feasts,  was  instituted  in  A.  tr. 
558  (b.  c.  196).  Contributions  and  tithes  of  all  sorts 
were  demanded  from  the  people.  Hercules,  especially,  as 
is  more  than  once  intimated  in  the  plays  of  Plautus, 
became  very  rich  by  his  tithes*  Religion  became  more 
and  more  a  charm,  on  the  exact  performance  of  which  the 
favor  of  the  gods  depended;  so  that  ceremonies  were 
sometimes  performed  thirty  times  before  the  essential 
accuracy  was  attained. 

The  gods  were  now  changed,  in  the  hands  of  Greek 
Statuaries,  into  ornaments  for  a  rich  man’s  home.  Greek' 

*  A  Greek  epigram,  recently  translated,  alludes  to  the  same  fact :  — 

“  Honey  and  milk  are  sacrifice  to  thee, 

Kind  Hermes,  inexpensive  deity. 

But  Hercules  demands  a  lamb  each  day. 

For  keeping,  so  lie  says,  the  wolves  away. 

Imports  it  much,  meek  browsers  of  the  sod, 

Whether  a  wolf  devour  you,  or  a  god  ?  ” 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


341 


myths  were  imported  and  connected  with  the  story  of 
Roman  deities,  as  Ennius  made  Saturn  the  son  of  Ccelus, 
in  imitation  of  the  genealogy  of  Kronos.  That  form  of 
rationalism  called  Euhemerism,  which  explains  every  god 
into  a  mythical  king  or  hero,  became  popular.  So,  too, 
was  the  doctrine  of  Epicharmos,  who  considered  the 
divinities  as  powers  of  nature  symbolized.  According  to 
the  usual  course  of  events,  superstition  and  unbelief  went 
hand  in  hand.  As  the  old  faith  died  out,  new  forms  of 
worship,  like  those  of  Cybele  and  Bacchus,  came  in. 
Stern  conservatives  like  Cato  opposed  all  these  innova¬ 
tions  and  scepticisms,  but  ineffectually. 

Gibbon  says  that  “  the  admirable  work  of  Cicero,  *  De 
Natura  Deorum,’  is  the  best  clew  we  have  to  guide  us 
through  this  dark  abyss  ”  (the  moral  and  religious  teach¬ 
ings  of  the  philosophers).*  After,  in  the  first  two  books, 
the  arguments  for  the  existence  and  providence  of  the 
gods  have  been  set  forth  and  denied,  by  Velleius  the 
Epicurean,  Cotta  the  academician,  and  Balbus  the 
Stoic ;  in  the  third  book.  Cotta,  the  head  of  the  priest¬ 
hood,  the  Pontifex  Maximus,  proceeds  to  refute  the 
stoical  opinion  that  there  are  gods  who  govern  the 
universe  and  provide  for  the  welfare  of  mankind.  To 
be  sure,  he  says,  as  Pontifex,  he  of  course  believes  in 
the  gods,  but  he  feels  free  as  a  philosopher  to  deny  their 
existence.  “  I  believe  in  the  gods,”  says  he,  “  on  the 
authority  and  tradition  of  our  ancestors  ;  but  if  we  reason, 
I  shall  reason  against  their  existence.”  “  Of  course,”  he 
says,  “  I  believe  in  divination,  as  I  have  always  been 
taught  to  do.  But  who  knows  whence  it  comes  ?  As  to 
the  voice  of  the  Fauns,  I  never  heard  it ;  and  I  do  not 
know  what  a  Faun  is.  You  say  that  the  regular  course 
of  nature  proves  the  existence  of  some  ordering  power, 
But  what  more  regular  than  a  tertian  or  quartan  fever  ? 
The  world  subsists  by  the  power  of  nature.”  Cotta  goes 
on  to  criticise  the  Roman  pantheon,  ridiculing  the  idea  of 
such  gods  as  “Love,  Deceit,  Fear,  Labor,  Envy,  Old  Age, 
Death,  Darkness,  Misery,  Lamentation,  Favor,  Fraud, 
Obstinacy,”  etc.  He  shows  that  there  are  many  gods  of 

*  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall,  Chap.  IL 


342 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


tlie  same  name ;  several  Jupiters,  Vulcans,  Apollos,  and 
Venuses.  He  then  denies  providence,  by  showing  that 
the  wicked  succeed  and  the  good  are  unfortunate.  Finally, 
all  was  left  in  doubt,  and  the  dialogue  ends  with  a  tone 
of  triumphant  uncertainty.  This  was  Cicero’s  contribu¬ 
tion  to  theology ;  and  Cicero  was  far  more  religious  than 
most  men  of  his  period. 

Many  writers,  and  more  recently  Merivale,*  have  re¬ 
ferred  to  the  remarkable  debate  which  took  place  in  the 
Roman  Senate,  on  the  occasion  of  Catiline’s  conspiracy. 
Caesar,  at  that  time  chief  pontiff,  the  highest  religious 
authority  in  the  state,  gave  his  opinion  against  putting 
the  conspirators  to  death  ;  for  death,  says  he,  “  is  the  end 
of  all  suffering.  After  death  there  is  neither  pain  nor 
pleasure  (ultra  neque  curce,  neque  gaudii  locum).”  Cato, 
the  Stoic,  remarked  that  Caesar  had  spoken  well  concern¬ 
ing  life  and  death.  “  I  take  it,”  says  lie,  “  that  he  regards 
as  false  what  we  are  told  about  the  sufferings  of  the 
wicked  hereafter,”  but  does  not  object  to  that  statement. 
These  speeches  are  reported  by  Sallust,  and  are  confirmed 
by  Cicero’s  fourth  Catiline  Oration.  The  remarkable  fact 
is,  not  that  such  things  were  said,  but  that  they  were  heard 
with  total  indifference.  No  one  seemed  to  think  it  was 
of  any  consequence  one  way  or  the  other.  Suppose  that 
when  the  question  of  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  w7as  be¬ 
fore  Parliament,  it  had  been  opposed  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  (had  he  been  there)  on  the  ground  that  after 
death  all  pain  and  pleasure  ceased.  The  absurdity  of  the 
supposition  shows  the  different  position  of  the  human 
mind  at  the  two  epochs. 

In  fact,  an  impassable  gulf  yawned  between  the  old 
Roman  religion  and  modern  Roman  thought.  It  was  out 
of  the  question  for  an  educated  Roman,  who  read  Plato 
and  Zeno,  who  listened  to  Cicero  and  Hortensius,  to  be¬ 
lieve  in  Janus  and  the  Penates.  “  All  very  well  for  the 
people,”  said  they.  “  The  people  must  be  kept  in  order 
by  these  superstitions.”  *f*  But  the  secret  could  not  be 
kept.  Sincere  men,  like  Lucretius,  who  saw  all  the  evil 

#  Conversion  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Note  A. 

t  “Expedit  civitates  falli  in  religione,”  said  Varro. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


343 


of  these  superstitions,  and  who  had  no  strong  religious 
sense,  would  speak  out,  and  proclaim  all  religion  to  he 
priestcraft  and  an  unmitigated  evil.  The  poem  of  Lucre¬ 
tius,  “  De  Iterum  Natura,”  declares  faith  in  the  gods  to  have 
been  the  curse  of  the  human  race,  and  immortality  to  he 
a  silly  delusion.  He  denies  the  gods,  providence,  the  hu¬ 
man  soul,  and  any  moral  purpose  in  the  universe.  But 
as  religion  is  an  instinct,  which  will  break  out  in  some 
form,  and  when  expelled  from  the  soul  returns  in  dis¬ 
guise,  Lucretius,  denying  all  the  gods,  pours  out  a  lovely 
hymn  to  Venus,  goddess  of  beauty  and  love. 

The  last  philosophic  protest,  in  behalf  of  a  pure  and 
authoritative  faith,  came  from  the  Stoics.  The  names  of 
Seneca,  Epictetus,  and  Aurelius  Antoninus  gave  dignity, 
if  they  could  not  bring  safety,  to  the  declining  religion 
of  Rome. 

Seneca,  indeed,  was  inferior  to  the  other  two  in  personal 
character,  and  was  more  of  a  rhetorician  than  a  philoso¬ 
pher.  But  noble  thoughts  occur  in  his  writings.  “  A 
sacred  spirit  sits  in  every  heart,”  he  says,  “  and  treats  us 
as  we  treat  it.”  He  opposed  idolatry,  he  condemned  ani¬ 
mal  sacrifices.  The  moral  element  is  very  marked  in  his 
brilliant  pages.  Philosophy,  he  says,  is  an  effort  to  he 
wise  and  good.*  Physical  studies  he  condemns  as  use- 
less.-f*  Goodness  is  that  which  harmonizes  with  the  natu¬ 
ral  movements  of  the  soul. J  God  and  matter  are  the  two 
principles  of  all  being  ;  God  is  the  active  principle,  mat¬ 
ter  the  passive.  God  is  spirit,  and  all  souls  are  part  of 
this  spirit.§  Reason  is  the  bond  which  unites  God  and 
other  souls,  and  so  God  dwells  in  all  souls.|| 

One  of  the  best  sayings  of  Epictetus  is  that  “  the  wise 
man  does  not  merely  know  by  tradition  and  hearsay  that 

*  “  Philosophia  sapientise  amor  est.”  “  Nec  philosophia  sine  virtute, 
nec  sine  philosophia  virtus.”  Epist.  XCI.  5. 

t  “  Physica  non  faciunt  bonos,  sed  doctos.”  Epist.  CVI.  11. 

J  “  Bonum  est,  quod  ad  se  impetum  animi  secundum  naturam  mo- 
vet.”  Epist.  CXVIII.  9. 

§  “  Universa  ex  materia  et  Deo  constant.”  Epist.  LXV.  24. 

||  “Socii  Dei  sumus  et  membra.  Prope  a  te  Deus  est,  tecum  est,  in- 
tus  est.  Sacer  intra  nos  Spiritus  sedet,  malorum  bonorumque  nostrorum 
observator  et  custos.  Deus  ad  homines  venit  ;  immo,  in  homines.” 
Epist.  XCII.  41,  73. 


344 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Jupiter  is  the  father  of  gods  and  men ;  but  is  inwardly 
convinced  of  it  in  his  soul,  and  therefore  cannot  help  act¬ 
ing  and  feeling  according  to  this  conviction.”  * 

Epictetus  declared  that  the  philosopher  could  have  no 
will  but  that  of  the  deity ;  he  never  blames  fate  or  for¬ 
tune,  for  he  knows  that  no  real  evil  can  befall  the  just 
man.  The  life  of  Epictetus  was  as  true  as  his  thoughts 
were  noble,  but  he  had  fallen  on  an  evil  age,  which  needed 
for  its  reform,  not  a  new  philosophy,  but  a  new  inspira¬ 
tion  of  divine  life.  This  steady  current  downward  dark¬ 
ened  the  pure  soul  of  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus,  of 
whom  Niebuhr  says,  *f*  “  If  there  is  any  sublime  human 
virtue,  it  is  his.”  He  adds :  “  He  was  certainly  the 
noblest  character  of  his  time  ;  and  I  know  no  other  man 
who  combined  such  unaffected  kindness,  mildness,  and 
humility  with  such  conscientiousness  and  severity  to¬ 
wards  himself.”  “  If  there  is  anywhere  an  expression  of 
virtue,  it  is  in  the  heavenly  features  of  M.  Aurelius.  His 
‘  Meditations  ’  are  a  golden  book,  though  there  are  things 
in  it  which  cannot  be  read  without  deep  grief,  for  there 
we  find  this  purest  of  men  without  happiness.”  Though 
absolute  monarch  of  the  Empire,  and  rich  in  the  univer¬ 
sal  love  of  his  people,  he  was  not  powerful  enough  to 
resist  the  steady  tendency  to  decay  in  society.  Nor  did 
he  know  that  the  power  that  was  to  renew  the  life  of  the 
world  was  already  present  in  Christianity.  He  himself 
was  in  soul  almost  a  Christian,  though  he  did  not  know 
it,  and  though  the  Christian  element  of  faith  and  hope 
was  wanting.  But  he  expressed  a  thought  worthy  of  the 
Gospel,  when  he  said :  “  The  man  of  disciplined  mind 
reverently  bids  Nature,  who  bestows  all  things  and  re¬ 
sumes  them  again  to  herself,  ‘  Give  what  thou  wilt,  and 
take  what  thou  wilt.’  ”  J 

Although  we  have  seen  that  Seneca  speaks  of  a  sacred 
spirit  which  dwells  in  us,  other  passages  in  his  works 
(quoted  by  Zeller)  show  that  he  was,  like  other  Stoics,  a 
pantheist,  and  meant  the  soul  of  the  world.  He  says 

*  Arrian’s  “Discourses  of  Epictetus,”  III.  24. 

+  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Rome,  III.  247. 

X  Monolog.,  X.  14. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


345 


(Nat.  Qu.,  II.  45,  and  Prolog.  13) :  “  Will  you  call  God 
the  world  ?  You  may  do  so  without  mistake.  For  he  is 
all  that  you  see  around  you.”  “  What  is  God  ?  The 
mind  of  the  universe.  What  is  God  ?  All  that  you  see, 
and  all  that  you  do  not  see.”  * 

It  was  not  philosophy  which  destroyed  religion  in 
Eome.  Philosophy,  no  doubt,  weakened  faith  in  the 
national  gods,  and  made  the  national  worship  seem  ab¬ 
surd.  But  it  was  the  general  tendency  downward  ;  it  was 
the  loss  of  the  old  Roman  simplicity  and  purity ;  it  was 
the  curse  of  Csesarism,  which,  destroying  all  other  human 
life,  destroyed  also  the  life  of  religion.  What  it  came  to 
at  last,  in  well-endowed  minds,  may  be  seen  in  this  ex¬ 
tract  from  the  elder  Pliny :  — 

“  All  religion*  is  the  offspring  of  necessity,  weakness,  and 
fear.  What  God  is,  if  in  truth  he  be  anything  distinct  from 
the  world,  it  is  beyond  the  compass  of  man’s  understanding 
to  know.  But  it  is  a  foolish  delusion,  which  has  sprung  from 
human  weakness  and  human  pride,  to  imagine  that  such  an 
infinite  spirit  would  concern  himself  with  the  petty  affairs  of 
men.  It  is  difficult  to  say,  whether  it  might  not  be  better  for 
men  to  be  wholly  without  religion,  than  to  have  one  of  this 
kind,  which  is  a  reproach  to  its  object.  The  vanity  of  man, 
and  his  insatiable  longing  after  existence,  have  led  him  also 
to  dream  of  a  life  after  death.  A  being  full  of  contradictions, 
he  is  the  most  wretched  of  creatures  ;  since  the  other  creatures 
have  no  wants  transcending  the  bounds  of  their  nature.  Man 
is  full  of  desires  and  wants  that  reach  to  infinity,  and  can 
never  be  satisfied.  His  nature  is  a  lie,  uniting  the  greatest 
poverty  with  the  greatest  pride.  Among  these  so  great  evils, 
the  best  thing  God  has  bestowed  on  man  is  the  power  to  take 
his  own  life.”  t 

The  system  of  the  Stoics  was  exactly  adapted  to  the 
Roman  character  ;  but,  naturally,  it  exaggerated  its  faults 
instead  of  correcting  them.  It  supplanted  all  other  sys¬ 
tems  in  the  esteem  of  leading  minds  ;  but  the  narrowness 
of  the  Roman  intellect  reacted  on  the  philosophy,  and 
made  that  much  more  narrow  than  it  was  in  the  Greek 

*  Zeller,  Stoics  Epicureans  and  Sceptics,  p.  150. 

t  Quoted  by  Neander,  Church  History,  I.  10  (Am.  ed.). 

15* 


346 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


thought.  It  became  simple  ethics,  omitting  both  the 
physical  and  metaphysical  side. 

Turning  to  literature,  we  find  in  Horace  a  gay  epicure¬ 
anism,  which  always  says :  “  Enjoy  this  life,  for  it  will 
be  soon  over,  and  after  death  there  is  nothing  left  for 
us.”  Virgil  tells  us  that  those  are  happy  who  know  the 
causes  of  things,  and  so  escape  the  terrors  of  Acheron. 
The  serious  Tacitus,  a  man  always  in  earnest,  a  penetrat¬ 
ing  mind,  is  by  Bunsen  called  “  the  last  Eoman  prophet, 
but  a  prophet  of  death  and  judgment.  He  saw  that 
Borne  hastened  to  ruin,  and  that  Csesarism  was  an  un¬ 
mixed  evil,  but  an  evil  not  to  be  remedied.”  *  He  de¬ 
clares  that  the  gods  had  to  mingle  in  Boman  affairs  as 
protectors ;  they  now  appeared  only  for  vengeance.*}* 
Tacitus  in  one  passage  speaks  of  human  freedom  as  su¬ 
perior  to  fate,  l  but  in  another  expresses  his  uncertainty 
on  the  whole  question. §  Equally  uncertain  was  he  con¬ 
cerning  the  future  life,  though  inclined  to  believe  that  the 
soul  is  not  extinguished  with  the  body.  || 

But  the  tone  of  the  sepulchral  monuments  of  that 
period  is  not  so  hopeful.  Here  are  some  which  are 
quoted  by  Dollinger,^  from  Mura  tori  and  Eabretti : 
“  Beader,  enjoy  thy  life  ;  for,  after  death,  there  is  neither 
laughter  nor  play,  nor  any  kind  of  enjoyment.”  “  Eriend, 
I  advise  thee  to  mix  a  goblet  of  wine  and  drink,  crown¬ 
ing  thy  head  with  flowers.  Earth  and  fire  consume  all 
that  remains  at  death.”  “  Pilgrim,  stop  and  listen.  In 
Hades  is  no  boat  and  no  Charon ;  no  Eacus  and  no  Cer¬ 
berus.  Once  dead,  we  are  all  alike.”  Another  says  : 
“  Hold  all  a  mockery,  reader  ;  nothing  is  our  own.” 

So  ended  the  Boman  religion  ;  in  superstition  among 
the  ignorant,  in  unbelief  among  the  wise.  It  was  time 
that  something  should  come  to  renew  hope.  This  was 
the  gift  which  the  Gospel  brought  to  the  Bomans,  —  hope 

*  Gott  in  der  Geschichte,  Zweiter  Tlieil,  Seite  387. 

t  Tacitus,  History,  I.  3. 

J  Ibid.,  Annals,  IV.  20. 

§  Ibid.,  Annals,  VI.  22. 

||  Ibid.,  Agricola,  46. 

IT  The  Greek  and  the  Jew,  Vol.  II.  p.  147. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


347 


for  time,  hope  beyond  time.  This  was  the  prayer  for  the 
Eomans  of  the  Apostle  Paul :  “Now  the  God  of  hope 
fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  believing,  that  ye  may 
abound  in  hope,  through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.”  * 
A  remarkable  fact,  that  a  Jewish  writer  should  exhort 
Eomans  to' hope  and  courage  ! 

§  5.  Relation  of  the  Roman  Religion  to  Christianity. 

The  idea  of  Eome  is  law,  that  of  Christianity  is  love. 
In  Eoman  worship  law  took  the  form  of  iron  rules ;  in 
Eoman  theology  it  appeared  as  a  stern  fate  ;  in  both  as  a 
slavery.  Christianity  came  as  freedom,  in  a  worship  free 
from  forms,  in  a  view  of  God  which  left  freedom  to 
man.  Christianity  came  to  the  Eoman  world,  not  as  a 
new  theory,  but  as  a  new  life.  As,  during  the  early  spring, 
the  power  of  the  returning  sun  penetrates  the  soil,  silent¬ 
ly  touching  the  springs  of  life ;  so  Christianity  during 
two  hundred  years  moved  silently  in  the  heart  of  Eoman 
society,  creating  a  new  faith,  hope,  and  love.  And  as, 
at  last,  in  the  spring  the  grass  shoots,  the  buds  open, 
the  leaves  appear,  the  flowers  bloom ;  so,  at  last,  Chris¬ 
tianity,  long  working  in  silence  and  shadow,  suddenly 
became  apparent,  and  showed  that  it  had  been  transform¬ 
ing  the  whole  tone  and  temper  of  Eoman.  civilization. 

But  wherever  there  is  action  there  is  also  reaction, 
and  no  power  or  force  can  wholly  escape  this  law.  So 
Eoman  thought,  acted  on  by  Christianity,  reacted  and 
modified  in  many  respects  the  Gospel.  Not  always  in  a 
bad  way,  sometimes  it  helped  its  developments.  For  the 
Providence  which  made  the  Gospel  for  the  Eomans  made 
the  Eomans  for  the  Gospel. 

The  great  legacy  bequeathed  to  mankind  by  ancient 
Eome  was  law.  Other  nations,  it  is  true,  had  codes 
of  law,  like  the  Institutes  of  Manu  in  India,  or  the 
jurisprudence  of  Solon  and  the  enactments  of  Lycur- 
gus.  But  Eoman  law  from  the  beginning  was  sancti¬ 
fied  by  the  conviction  that  it  was  founded  on  justice,  and 
not  merely  on  expediency  or  prudence.  In  submitting  to 

*  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  xv.  13. 


348 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


the  laws,  even  when  they  were  cruel  and  oppressive,  the 
Roman  was  obeying,  not  force,  hut  conscience.  The  view 
which  Plato  gave  as  an  ideal  in  Crito  was  realized  in 
Roman  society  from  the  first.  Consider  the  cruel  enact¬ 
ments  which  made  the  debtors  the  slaves  of  the  creditor, 
and  the  fact  that  when  the  plebeians  were  grotmd  to  the 
earth  by  that  oppression,  they  did  not  attempt  to  resist 
the  law,  but  in  their  despair  fled  from  their  homes,  be¬ 
yond  the  jurisdiction  of  Rome,  to  establish  a  new  city 
where  these  enactments  could  not  reach  them.  Only 
when  the  laws  are  thus  enforced  by  the  public  conscience 
as  something  sacred,  does  society  become  possible ;  and 
this  sense  of  the  divinity  which  hedges  a  code  of  laws 
has  been  transmitted  from  ancient  Rome  into  the  civiliza¬ 
tion  of  Europe. 

Cicero,  in  his  admirable  treatise  on  the  laws,  which  un¬ 
fortunately  we  have  in  an  imperfect  condition,  devotes 
the  whole  of  the  first  book  to  establishing  eternal  justice 
as  the  basis  of  all  jurisprudence.  No  better  text-book 
could  have  been  found  for  the  defence  of  what  was  called 
“  the  higher  law,”  in  the  great  American  antislavery 
struggle,  than  this  work  of  Cicero.  “  Let  us  establish,” 
he  says,  “  the  principles  of  justice  on  that  supreme  law 
which  has  existed  from  all  ages  before  any  legislative 
enactments  were  written,  or  any  political  governments 
formed.”  “  Among  all  questions,  there  is  none  more  im¬ 
portant  to  understand  than  this,  that  man  is  born  for  jus¬ 
tice  ;  and  that  law  and  equity  have  not  been  established 
by  opinion,  but  by  nature.”  “  It  is  an  absurd  extrava¬ 
gance  in  some  philosophers  to  assert  that  all  tilings  are 
necessarily  just  which  are  established  by  the  laws  and  in¬ 
stitutions  of  nations.”  “  Justice  does  not  consist  in  sub¬ 
mission  to  written  laws.”  “  If  the  will  of  the  people,  the 
decrees  of  the  senate,  the  decisions  of  magistrates,  were 
sufficient  to  establish  rights,  then  it  might  become  right 
to  rob,  to  commit  adultery,  to  forge  wills,  if  this  was 
sanctioned  by  the  votes  or  decrees  of  the  majority.”  “  The 
sum  of  all  is,  that  what  is  right  should  be  sought  for  its 
own  sake,  because  it  is  right,  and  not  because  it  is  enacted.” 

Law  appears  from  the  very  beginnings  of  the  Roman 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


349 


state.  The  oldest  traditions  make  Eomulus,  Numa,  and 
Servius  to  be  legislators.  From  that  time,  after  the  ex¬ 
pulsion  of  the  Tarquins,  Eome  was  governed  by  laws. 
Even  the  despotism  of  the  Caesars  did  not  interfere  with 
the  general  administration  of  the  laws  in  civil  affairs  ;  for 
the  one-man  power,  though  it  may  corrupt  and  degrade  a 
state,  does  not  immediately  and  directly  affect  many  per¬ 
sons  in  their  private  lives.  Law  continued  to  rule  in 
common  affairs,  and  this  legacy  of  a  society  organized  by 
law  was  the  gift  of  Eome  to  modern  Europe.  How  great 
a  blessing  it  has  been  may  be  seen  by  comparing  the 
worst  Christian  government  with  the  best  of  the  despotic 
governments  of  Asia.  Mohammedan  society  is  ruled  by  a 
hierarchy  of  tyranny,  each  little  tyrant  being  in  turn  the 
victim  of  the  one  above  him. 

The  feudal  system,  introduced  by  the  Teutonic  races, 
attempted  to  organize  Europe  on  the  basis  of  military 
despotism  ;  but  Eoman  law  was  too  strong  for  feudal 
law,  and  happily  for  mankind  overcame  it  and  at  last 
expelled  it. 

Christianity,  in  its  ready  hospitality  for  all  the  truth  ' 
and  good  which  it  encounters,  accepted  Eoman  jurispru¬ 
dence  and  gave  to  it  a  new  lease  of  life.*  Christian 
emperors  and  Christian  lawyers  codified  the  long  line  of 
decrees  and  enactments  reaching  back  to  the  Twelve 
Tables,  and  established  them  as  the  laws  of  the  Christian 
world.  But  the  spirit  of  Eoman  law  acted  on  Christian¬ 
ity  in  a  more  subtle  manner.  It  reproduced  the  organic 
character  of  the  Eoman  state  in  the  Western  Latin 
Church,  and  it  reproduced  the  soul  of  Eoman  law  in  the 
Western  Latin  theology. 

It  has  not  always  been  sufficiently  considered  how 
much  the  Latin  Church  was  a  reproduction,  on  a  higher 

*  “  The  legislation  of  Justinian,  as  far  as  it  was  original,  in  his  Code, 
Pandects,  and  Institutes,  was  still  almost  exclusively  Roman.  It  might 
seem  that  Christianity  could  hardly  penetrate  into  the  solid  and  well- 
compacted  body  of  Roman  law  ;  or  rather  the  immutable  principles  of 
justice  had  been  so  clearly  discerned  by  the  inflexible  rectitude  of  the 
Roman  mind,  and  so  sagaciously  applied  by  the  wisdom  of  her  great  law¬ 
yers,  that  Christianity  was  content  to  acquiesce  in  these  statutes,  which 
she  might  despair,  except  in  some  respects,  of  rendering  more  equitable.” 
—  Milman,  Latin  Christianity,  Vol.  II.  p.  11. 


350 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


plane,  of  the  old  Roman  Commonwealth.  The  resem¬ 
blance  between  the  Roman  Catholic  ceremonies  and  those 
of  Pagan  Rome  has  been  often  noticed.  The  Roman  Cath¬ 
olic  Church  has  borrowed  from  Paganism  saints’  days,  in¬ 
cense,  lustrations,  consecrations  of  sacred  places,  votive- 
offerings,  relics  ;  winking,  nodding,  sweating,  and  bleeding 
images ;  holy  water,  vestments,  etc.  But  the  Church  of 
Rome  itself,  in  its  central  idea  of  authority,  is  a  reproduc¬ 
tion  of  the  Roman  state  religion,  which  was  a  part  of  the 
Roman  state.  The  Eastern  churches  were  sacerdotal  and 
religious  ;  the  Church  of  Rome  added  to  these  elements 
that  of  an  organized  political  authority.  It  was  the  res¬ 
urrection  of  Rome,  —  Roman  ideas  rising  into  a  higher 
life.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church,  at  first  an  aristocratic 
republic,  like  the  Roman  state,  afterwards  became,  like 
the  Roman  state,  a  disguised  despotism.  The  Papal 
Church  is  therefore  a  legacy  of  ancient  Rome.* 

And  just  as  the  Roman  state  was  first  a  help  and  then 
a  hindrance  to  the  progress  of  humanity,  so  it  has  been 
with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Ancient  Rome  gradu¬ 
ally  bound  together  into  a  vast  political  unity  the  divided 
tribes  and  states  of  Europe,  and  so  infused  into  them  the 
civilization  which  she  had  developed  or  received.  And 
so  the  Papal  Church  united  Europe  again,  and  once  more 
permeated  it  with  the  elements  of  law,  of  order,  of  Chris¬ 
tian  faith.  All  intelligent  Protestants  admit  the  good 
done  in  this  way  by  the  mediaeval  church. 

For  example,  Milmanf  says,  speaking  of  Gregory  the 
Great  and  his  work,  that  it  was  necessary  that  there 
should  be  some  central  power  like  the  Papacy  to  resist 
the  dissolution  of  society  at  the  downfall  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  “  The  life  and  death  of  Christianity  ”  depended, 
he  says,  “  on  the  rise  of  such  a  power.”  “  It  is  impossi¬ 
ble  to  conceive  what  had  been  the  confusion,  the  lawless¬ 
ness,  the  chaotic  state  of  the  Middle  Ages,  without  the 
mediaeval  Papacy.” 

*  See  Ranke,  History  of  the  Popes,  Chap.  I.,  where  he  says  that  the 
Roman  Empire  gave  its  outward  form  to  Christianity  (meaning  Latin 
Christianity),  and  that  the  constitution  of  the  hierarchy  was  necessarily 
modelled  on  that  of  the  Empire. 

+  History  of  Latin  Christianity,  Yol.  II.  p.  100. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 


351 


The  whole  history  of  Borne  had  infused  into  the 
minds  of  Western  nations  a  conviction  of  the  importance 
of  centralization  in  order  to  union.  From  Eome,  as  a 
centre,  had  proceeded  government,  law,  civilization.  Chris¬ 
tianity  therefore  seemed  to  need  a  like  centre,  in  order  to 
retain  its  unity.  Hence  the  supremacy  early  yielded  to 
the  Bishop  of  Eome.  His  primacy  was  accepted,  because 
it  was  useful.  The  Papal  Church  would  never  have  ex¬ 
isted,  if  Eome  and  its  organizing  ideas  had  not  existed 
before  Christianity  was  born. 

In  like  manner  the  ideas  developed  in  the  Eoman 
mind  determined  the  course  of  Western  theology,  as  dif¬ 
fering  from  that  of  the  East.  It  is  well  known  that 
Eastern  theological  speculation  was  occupied  with  the 
nature  of  God  and  the  person  of  Christ,  but  that  West¬ 
ern  theology  discussed  sin  and  salvation.  Mr.  Maine,  in 
his  work  on  “  Ancient  Law,”  considers  this  difference  to 
have  been  occasioned  by  habits  of  thought  produced  by 
Eoman  jurisprudence.  I  quote  his  language  at  some 
length :  — 

“  What  has  to  be  determined  is  whether  jurisprudence 
has  ever  served  as  the  medium  through  which  theologi¬ 
cal  principles  have  been  viewed ;  whether,  by  supplying 
a  peculiar  language,  a  peculiar  mode  of  reasoning,  and  a 
peculiar  solution  of  many  of  the  problems  of  life,  it  has 
ever  opened  new  channels  in  which  theological  specula¬ 
tion  could  flow  out  and  expand  itself.” 

“  On  all  questions,”  continues  Mr.  Maine,  quoting  Dean 
Milman,  “  which  concerned  the  person  of  Christ  and 
the  nature  of  the  Trinity,  the  Western  world  accepted 
passively  the  dogmatic  system  of  the  East.”  “  But  as  soon 
as  the  Latin-speaking  empire  began  to  live  an  intellectual 
life  of  its  own,  its  deference  to  the  East  was  at  once  ex¬ 
changed  for  the  agitation  of  a  number  of  questions  en¬ 
tirely  foreign  to  Eastern  speculation.”  “  The  nature  of 
sin  and  its  transmission  by  inheritance,  the  debt  owed  by 
man  and  its  vicarious  satisfaction,  and  like  theological 
problems,  relating  not  to  the  divinity  but  to  human  na¬ 
ture,  immediately  began  to  be  agitated.”  “  I  affirm,”  says 
Mr.  Maine,  “  without  hesitation,  that  the  difference  be- 


352 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


tween  the  two  theological  systems  is  accounted  for  by  the 
fact  that,  in  passing  from  the  East  to  the  West,  theological 
speculation  had  passed  from  a  climate  of  Greek  meta¬ 
physics  to  a  climate  of  Eoman  law.  Eor  Some  centuries 
before  these  controversies  rose  into  overwhelming  impor¬ 
tance,  all  the  intellectual  activity  of  the  Western  Eomans 
had  been  expended  on  jurisprudence  exclusively.  They 
had  been  occupied  in  applying  a  peculiar  set  of  principles 
to  all  combinations  in  which  the  circumstances  of  life  are 
capable  of  being  arranged.  No  foreign  pursuit  or  taste 
called  off  their  attention  from  this  engrossing  occupation, 
and  for  carrying  it  on  they  possessed  a  vocabulary  as 
accurate  as  it  was  copious,  a  strict  method  of  reasoning, 
a  stock  of  general  propositions  on  conduct  more  or  less 
verified  by  experience,  and  a  rigid  moral  philosophy.  It 
was  impossible  that  they  should  not  select  from  the  ques¬ 
tions  indicated  by  the  Christian  records  those  which 
had  some  affinity  with  the  order  of  speculations  to  which 
they  were  accustomed,  and  that  their  manner  of  deal¬ 
ing  with  them  should  not  borrow  something  from  their 
forensic  habits.  Almost  every  one  w7ho  has  knowledge 
enough  of  Eoman  law  to  appreciate  the  Eoman  penal 
system,  the  Eoman  theory  of  the  obligations  established 
by  contract  or  delict,  the  Eoman  view  of  debts,  etc.,  the 
Eoman  notion  of  the  continuance  of  individual  existence 
by  universal  succession,  may  be  trusted  to  say  whence 
arose  the  frame  of  mind  to  which  the  problems  of  West¬ 
ern  theology  proved  so  congenial,  whence  came  the 
phraseology  in  which  these  problems  were  stated,  and 
whence  the  description  of  reasoning  employed  in  their 
solution.”  “As  soon  as  they  (the  Western  Church)  ceased 
to  sit  at  the  feet  of  the  Greeks  and  began  to  ponder  out  a 
theology  of  their  own,  the  theology  proved  to  be  per¬ 
meated  with  forensic  ideas  and  couched  in  a  forensic 
phraseology.  It  is  certain  that  this  substratum  of  law  in 
Western  theology  lies  exceedingly  deep.”  * 

The  theory  of  the  atonement,  developed  by  the  scholas¬ 
tic  writers,  illustrates  this  view.  In  the  East,  for  a  thou¬ 
sand  years,  the  atoning  work  of  Christ  had  been  viewed 

*  Maine,  Ancient  Law,  Chap.  IX. 


353 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME. 

mainly  as  redemption,  as  a  ransom  paid  to  obtain  the 
freedom  of  mankind,  enslaved  by  the  Devil  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  their  sins.  It  was  not  a  legal  theory,  or  one 
based  on  notions  of  jurisprudence,  but  it  was  founded  on 
warlike  notions.  Men  were  captives  taken  in  war,  and, 
like  all  captives  in  those  times,  destined  to  slavery. 
Their  captor  was  Satan,  and  the  ransom  must  be  paid  to 
him,  as  he  held  them  prisoners  by  the  law  of  battle. 
Now  as  Christ  had  committed  no  sin,  the  Devil  had  no 
just  power  over  him  ;  in  putting  Christ  to  death  he  had  lost 
his  rights  over  his  other  captives,  and  Christ  could  justly 
claim  their  freedom  as  a  compensation  for  this  injury. 
Christ,  therefore,  strictly  and  literally,  according  to  the 
ancient  view,  “  gave  his  life  a  ransom  for  many.” 

But  the  mind  of  Anselm,  educated  by  notions  derived 
from  Boman  jurisprudence,  substituted  for  this  original 
theory  of  the  atonement  one  based  upon  legal  ideas. 
All,  in  this  theory,  turns  on  the  law  of  debt  and  penalty. 
Sin  he  defines  as  “  not  paying  to  God  what  we  owe 
him.”*  But  we  owe  God  constant  and  entire  obedi¬ 
ence,  and  every  sin  deserves  either  penalty  or  satisfac¬ 
tion.  We  are  unable  to  make  it  good,  for  at  every  mo¬ 
ment  we  owe  God  all  that  we  can  do.  Christ,  as  God-man, 
can  satisfy  God  for  our  omissions ;  his  death,  as  offered 
freely,  when  he  did  not  deserve  death  on  account  of  any 
sin  of  his  own,  is  sufficient  satisfaction.  It  will  easily  be 
seen  how  entirely  this  argument  has  substituted  a  legal 
basis  for  the  atonement  in  place  of  the  old  warlike  foun¬ 
dation. 

This,  therefore,  has  been  the  legacy  of  ancient  Borne 
to  Christianity :  firstly,  the  organization  of  the  Latin 
Church ;  secondly,  the  scholastic  theology,  founded  on 
notions  of  jurisprudence  introduced  into  man’s  relations 
to  God.  In  turn,  Christianity  has  bestowed  on  Western 
Europe  what  the  old  Bomans  never  knew,  —  a  religion 
of  love  and  inspiration.  In  place  of  the.  hard  and  cold 
Boman  life,  modern  Europe  lias  sentiment,  and  heart 
united  with  thought  and  force.  With  Boman  strength;  it 
has  joined  a  Christian  tenderness,  romance,  and  personal! 

*  “  Nbn  aliud  peccare  quam  Deo  non  reddere  debitum.” 


354 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


freedom.  Humanity  now  is  greater  than  the  social  organ¬ 
ization  ;  the  state,  according  to  our  view,  is  made  for 
man,  not  man  for  the  state.  We  are  outgrowing  the  hard 
and  dry  theology  which  we  have  inherited  from  Eoman 
law  through  the  scholastic  teachers ;  but  we  shall  not 
outgrow  our  inheritance  from  Eome  of  unity  in  the 
Church,  definite  thought  in  our  theology,  and  society  or¬ 
ganized  by  law. 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  355 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION. 

§  1.  The  Land  and  the  Race.  §  2.  Idea  of  the  Scandinavian  Religion. 
§  3.  The  Eddas  and  their  Contents.  §  4.  The  Gods  of  Scandinavia. 
§  5.  Resemblance  of  the  Scandinavian  Mythology  to  that  of  Zoroaster. 
§  6.  Scandinavian  Worship.  §  7.  Social  Character,  Maritime  Discov¬ 
eries,  and  Political  Institutions  of  the  Scandinavians.  §  8.  Relation 
of  this  System  to  Christianity. 

§  1.  The  Land  and  the  Race. 

THE  great  Teutonic  or  German  division  of  the  Indo- 
European  family  entered  Europe  subsequently  to  the 
Keltic  tribes,  and  before  the  Slavic  immigration.  This 
people  overspread  and  occupied  a  large  part  of  Northern 
Central  Europe,  from  which  the  attempts  of  the  Romans 
to  dispossess  them  proved  futile.  Of  their  early  history 
we  know  very  little.  Bishop  Percy  contrasts  their  love  of 
making  records,  as  shown  by  the  Runic  inscriptions,  with 
the  Keltic  law  of  secrecy.  The  Druids  forbade  any  com¬ 
munication  of  their  mysteries  by  writing ;  but  the  Ger¬ 
man  Scalds  put  all  their  belief  into  popular  songs,  and 
reverenced  literature  as  a  gift  of  the  gods.  Yet  we  have 
received  very  little  information  concerning  these  tribes 
before  the  days  of  Caesar  and  Tacitus.  Caesar  describes 
them  as  warlike,  huge  in  stature ;  having  reverence  for 
women,  who  were  their  augurs  and  diviners  ;  worshipping 
the  Sun,  the  Moon,  and  Eire  ;  having  no  regular  priests, 
and  paying  little  regard  to  sacrifices.  He  says  that  they 
occupied  their  lives  in  hunting  and  war,  devoting  them¬ 
selves  from  childhood  to  severe  labors.  They  reverenced 
chastity,  and  considered  it  as  conducive  to  health  and 
strength.  They  were  rather  a  pastoral  than  agricultural 
people ;  no  one  owning  land,  but  each  having  it  assigned 
to  him  temporarily.  The  object  of  this  provision  was  said 
to  be  to  prevent  accumulation  of  wealth  and  the  loss  of 


356 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


warlike  habits.  They  fought  with  cavalry  supported  by 
infantry.  In  the  time  of  Augustus  all  attempts  at  con¬ 
quering  Germany  were  relinquished,  and  war  was  main¬ 
tained  only  in  the  hope  of  revenging  the  destruction  of 
Yarns  and  his  three  legions  by  the  famous  German  chief 

Arminius,  or  Herrman* 

•  :  -  J  ... 

Tacitus  freely  admits  that  the  Germans  were  as  war¬ 
like  as  the  Romans,  and  were  only  inferior  in  weapons 
and  discipline.  He  pays  a  generous  tribute  to  Armin¬ 
ius,  whom  he  declares  to  have  been  “  beyond  all  question 
the  liberator  of  Germany,”  dying  at  thirty- seven,  uncon¬ 
quered  in  war.*)*  Tacitus  quotes  from  some  ancient  Ger¬ 
man  ballads  or  hymns  (“  the  only  historic  monuments,” 
says  he,  “  that  they  possess  ”)  the  names  of  Tuisto,  a  god 
born  from  the  earth,  and  Mannus,  his  son.  Tacitus  was 
much  struck  with  the  physical  characteristics  of  the 
race,  as  being  so  uniform.  There  was  a  family  likeness, 
he  says,  among  them  all,  —  stern  blue  eyes,  yellow  hair, 
large  bodies.  Their  wealth  was  in  their  flocks  and  herds. 
“  Gold  and  silver  are  kept  from  them  by  the  anger,  or 
perhaps  by  the  favor,  of  Heaven.”  Their  rulers  were 
elective,  and  their  power  was  limited.  Their  judges  were 
the  priests.  They  saw  something  divine  in  woman,  and 
her  judgments  were  accepted  as  oracles.  Such  women  as 
Yeleda  and  Aurinia  were  reverenced  as  prophets ;  “  but 
not  adored  or  made  into  goddesses,”  says  Tacitus,  with  a 
side-glance  at  some  events  at  home.  Their  gods,  Tacitus 
chooses  to  call  Mercury,  Hercules,  and  Mars  ;  but  he  dis¬ 
tinctly  says  that  the  Germans  had  neither  idols  nor 
temples,  but  worshipped  in  sacred  groves.  J  He  also  says 
that  the  Germans  divined  future  events  by  pieces  of 
sticks,  by  the  duel,  and  by  the  movements  of  sacred 
horses.  Their  leaders  might  decide  the  less  important 
matters,  but  the  principal  questions  were  settled  at  public 
meetings.  These  assemblies  were  held  at  regular  inter¬ 
vals,  were  opened  by  the  priest,  were  presided  over  by 
the  chief,  and  decided  all  public  affairs.  Tacitus  remarks 

*  Csesar,  Bell.  Gall.,  I.  36,  39,  48,  50  ;  YI.  21,  22,  23. 

t  “  Praeliis  ambiguus,  hello  non  victus.”  — Annals,  II.  88. 

£  Tacitus,  Germania,  §§  2,  4,  5,  7,  8,  9. 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  357 

that  the  spirit  of  liberty  goes  to  such  an  extreme  among 
the  Germans  as  to  destroy  regularity  and  order.  They 
will  not  be  punctual  at  their  meetings,  lest  it  should  seem 
as  if  they  attended  because  commanded  to  come.*  Mar¬ 
riage  was  sacred,  and,  unlike  other  heathen  nations,  they 
were  contented  with  one  wife.  They  were  affectionate 
and  constant  to  the  marriage  vow,  which  meant  to  the 
pure  German  woman  one  husband,  one  life,  one  body,  and 
one  soul.  The  ancient  Germans,  like  their  modern  de¬ 
scendants,  drank  beer  and  Rhenish  wine,  and  were  divided 
into  numerous  tribes,  who  afterward  reappeared  for  the 
destruction  of  the  Roman  Empire,  as  the  Goths,  Vandals, 
Lombards,  and  Franks. 

The  Scandinavians  were  a  branch  of  the  great  German 
family.  Their  language,  the  old  Norse,  was  distinguished 
from  the  Alemannic,  or  High  German  tongue,  and  from 
the  Saxonic,  or  Low  German  tongue.  From  the  Norse 
have  been  derived  the  languages  of  Iceland,  of  the  Fer- 
roe  Isles,  of  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark.  From  the 
Germanic  branch  have  come  German,  Dutch,  Anglo- 
Saxon,  Mseso-Gothic,  and  English.  It  was  in  Scandinavia 
that  the  Teutonic  race  developed  its  special  civilization 
and  religion.  Cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  world  by 
stormy  seas,  the  people  could  there  unfold  their  ideas, 
and  become  themselves.  It  is  therefore  to  Scandinavia 
that  we  must  go  to  study  the  German  religion,  and  to 
find  the  influence  exercised  on  modern  civilization  and 
the  present  character  of  Europe.  This  influence  has  been 
freely  acknowledged  by  great  historians. 

Montesquieu  says  :  Hf*  — 

“  The  great  prerogative  of  Scandinavia  is,  that  it  afforded 
the  great  resource  to  the  liberty  of  Europe,  that  is,  to  almost 
all  of  liberty  there  is  among  men.  The  Goth  Jornandes  calls 
the  North  of  Europe  the  forge  of  mankind.  I  would  rather 
call  it  the  forge  of  those  instruments  which  broke  the  fetters 
manufactured  in  the  South.” 

Geijer,  in  his  Swedish  History,  tells  us :  - 

*  “Illud  ex  libertate  vitium,  quod  non  simul,  nec  ut  jussi,  con- 
veniunt.”^— Germania,  §  11. 

+  Esprit  des  Loix. 


358 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


“  The  recollections  which  Scandinavia  has  to  add  to  those 
of  the  Germanic  race  are  yet  the  most  antique  in  character 
and  comparatively  the  most  original.  They  offer  the  com- 
pletest  remaining  example  of  a  social  state  existing  previously 
to  the  reception  of  influences  from  Rome,  and  in  duration 
stretching  onward  so  as  to  come  within  the  sphere  of  historical 
light.” 

We  do  not  know  how  much  of  those  old  Northern  ideas 
may  be  still  mingled  with  our  ways  of  thought.  The 
names  of  their  gods  we  retain  in  those  of  our  week¬ 
days,  —  Tuesday,  Wednesday,  Thursday,  and  Friday. 
Their  popular  assemblies,  or  Things,  were  the  origin  of 
our  Parliament,  our  Congress,  and  our  general  assemblies. 
If  from  the  South  came  the  romantic  admiration  of  woman, 
from  the  North  came  a  better  respect  for  her  rights  and 
the  sense  of  her  equality.  Our  trial  by  jury  was  imme¬ 
diately  derived  from  Scandinavia  ;  and,  according  to 
Montesquieu,  as  we  have  seen,  we  owe  to  the  North,  as 
the  greatest  inheritance  of  all,  that  desire  for  freedom 
which  is  so  chief  an  element  in  Christian  civilization. 

Scandinavia  proper  consists  of  those  regions  now  occu¬ 
pied  by  the  kingdoms  of  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway. 
The  geographical  peculiarity  of  this  country  is  its  prox¬ 
imity  everywhere  to  the  sea,  and  the  great  extent  of  its 
coast  line.  The  great  peninsula  of  Sweden  and  Norway, 
with  the  Northern  Ocean  on  its  west,  the  Baltic  and  Gulf 
of  Bothnia  on  its  east,  penetrated  everywhere  by  creeks, 
friths,  and  arms  of  the  sea,  surrounded  with  innumerable 
islands,  studded  with  lakes,  and  cleft  with  rivers,  is  also 
unrivalled,  except  by  Switzerland,  in  the  sublime  and 
picturesque  beauty  of  its  mountains.  The  other  peninsula, 
that  of  Denmark,  surrounded  and  penetrated  also  every¬ 
where  by  the  sea,  differs  in  being  almost  level ;  rising 
nowhere,  at  its  highest  point,  more  than  a  thousand  feet 
above  the  ocean.  Containing  an  area  of  only  twenty-two 
thousand  square  miles,  it  is  so  penetrated  with  bays 
and  creeks  as  to  have  four  thousand  miles  of  coast. 
Like  the  northern  peninsula,  it  is  also  surrounded  with 
a  multitude  of  islands,  which  are  so  crowded  together, 
especially  on  its  eastern  coast,  as  to  make  an  archipelago. 


9 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  359 


It  is  impossible  to  look  at  the  map  of  Europe,  and  not  be 
struck  with  the  resemblance  in  these  particulars  between 
its  northern  and  southern  geography.  The  Baltic  Sea  is 
the  Mediterranean  of  Northern  Europe.  The  peninsula 
of  Denmark,  with  its  multitudinous  bays  and  islands,  cor¬ 
responds  to  Greece,  the  Morea,  and  its  archipelago.  We 
have  shown  in  our  chapter  on  Greece  that  modern  geogra¬ 
phy  teaches  that  the  extent  of  coast  line,  when  compared 
with  the  superficial  area  of  a  country,  is  one  of  the  essen¬ 
tial  conditions  of  civilization.  Who  can  fail  to  see  the 
hand  of  Providence  in  the  adaptation  of  races  to  the 
countries  they  are  to  inhabit  ?  The  great  tide  of  human 
life,  flowing  westward  from  Central  Asia,  was  divided  into 
currents  by  the  Caspian  and  Black  Seas,  and  by  the  lofty 
range  of  mountains  which,  under  the  name  of  the  Cau¬ 
casus,  Carpathian  Mountains,  and  Alps,  extends  almost  in 
an  unbroken  line  from  the  western  coast  of  the  Caspian 
to  the  northern  limits  of  Germany.  The  Teutonic  races, 
Germans,  Saxons,  Franks,  and  Northmen,  were  thus  de¬ 
termined  to  the  north,  and  spread  themselves  along  the 
coast  and  peninsulas  of  the  Northern  Mediterranean.  The 
other  branch  of  the  great  Indo-European  variety  was 
distributed  through  Syria,  Asia  Minor,  Greece,  Southern 
France,  Italy,  and  Spain.  Each  of  these  vast  European 
families,  stimulated  to  mental  and  moral  activity  by  its 
proximity  to  water,  developed  its  own  peculiar  forms  of 
national  character,  which  were  afterwards  united  in  mod¬ 
ern  European  society.  The  North  developed  individual 
freedom,  the  South  social  organization.  The  North  gave 
force,  the  South  culture.  From  Southern  Europe  came 
literature,  philosophy,  laws,  arts ;  from  the  North,  that 
respect  for  individual  rights,  that  sense  of  personal  dig¬ 
nity,  that  energy  of  the  single  soul,  which  is  the  essential 
equipoise  of  a  high  social  culture.  These  two  elements, 
of  freedom  and  civilization,  always  antagonist,  have  been 
in  most  ages  hostile.  The  individual  freedom  of  the 
North  has  been  equivalent  to  barbarism,  and  from  time  to 
time  has  rolled  down  a  destroying  deluge  over  the  South, 
almost  sweeping  away  its  civilization,  and  overwhelming 
in  a  common  ruin  arts,  literature,  and  laws.  On  the 


360 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


other  hand,  civilization  at  the  South  hag  passed  into 
luxury,  has  produced  effeminacy,  till  individual  freedom 
has  been  lost  under  grinding  despotism.  But  in  mod¬ 
ern  civilization  a  third  element  has  been  added,  which 
has  brought  these  two  powers  of  Northern  freedom  and 
Southern  culture  into  equipoise  and  harmony.  This 
new  element  is  Christianity,  which  develops,  at  the  same 
time,  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility,  by  teaching  the 
individual  destiny  and  worth  of  every  soul,  and  also  the 
mutual  dependence  and  interlacing  brotherhood  of  all 
human  society.  This  Christian  element  in  modern  civil¬ 
ization  saves  it  from  the  double  danger  of  a  relapse 
into  barbarism  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  too  refined  luxury 
on  the  other.  The  nations  of  Europe,  to-day,  which  are 
the  most  advanced  in  civilization,  literature,  and  art,  are 
also  the  most  deeply  pervaded  with  the  love  of  freedom ; 
and  the  most  civilized  nations  on  the  globe,  instead  of 
being  the  most  effeminate,  are  also  the  most  powerful. 

The  Scandinavian  people,  destined  to  play  so  important 
a  part  in  the  history  of  the  world,  were,  as  we  have  said, 
a  branch  of  the  great  Indo-European  variety.  We  have 
seen  that  modern  ethnology  teaches  that  all  the  races 
which  inhabit  Europe,  with  some  trifling  exceptions,  be¬ 
long  to  one  family,  which  originated  in  Central  Asia. 
This  has  appeared  and  is  proved  by  means  of  glossology, 
or  the  science  of  language.  The  closest  resemblance 
exists  between  the  seven  linguistic  families  of  Hindostan, 
Persia,  Greece,  Pome,  Germany,  the  Kelts,  and  the  Slavi ; 
and  it  is  a  most  striking  fact  of  human  history,  that  from 
the  earliest  period  of  recorded  time  down  to  the  present 
day  a  powerful  people,  speaking  a  language  belonging  to 
one*or  other  of  these  races,  should  have  in  a  great  meas¬ 
ure  swayed  the  destinies  of  the  world. 

Before  the  birth  of  Christ  the  peninsula  of  Denmark 
was  called  by  the  Romans  the  Cimbric  Chersonesus,  or 
Cimbric  peninsula.  This  name  came  from  the  Cimbri,  a 
people  who,  one  hundred  and  eleven  years  before  Christ, 
almost  overthrew  the  Roman  Republic,  exciting  more 
terror  than  any  event  since  the  days  of  Hannibal.  More 
than  three  hundred  thousand  men,  issuing  from  the  pe- 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  361 

ninsula  of  Denmark  and  the  adjacent  regions,  poured  like 
a  torrent  over  Gaul  and  Southern  Germany.  They  met 
and  overthrew  in  succession  four  Eoman  armies;  until, 
finally,  they  were  conquered  by  the  military  skill  and  ge¬ 
nius  of  Marius.  After  this  eruption  was  checked,  the  great 
northern  volcano  slumbered  for  centuries.  Other  tribes 
from  Asia  —  Goths,  Y andals,  Huns  —  combined  in  the 
overthrow  of  the  Eoman  Empire.  At  last  the  inhabitants 
of  Scandinavia  appear  again  under  the  name  of  Northmen, 
invading  and  conquering  England  in  the  fifth  century  as 
Saxons,  in  the  ninth  century  as  Danes,  and  in  the  elev¬ 
enth  as  Normans  again  overrunning  England  and  France. 
But  the  peculiarity  of  the  Scandinavian  invasions  was 
their  maritime  character.  Daring  and  skilful  navigators, 
they  encountered  the  tempests  of  the  Northern  Ocean  and 
the  heavy  roll  of  the  Atlantic  in  vessels  so  small  and 
slight  that  they  floated  like  eggshells  on  the  surface  of 
the  waves,  and  ran  up  the  rivers  of  France  and  England, 
hundreds  of  miles,  without  check  from  shallows  or  rocks. 
In  these  fragile  barks  they  made  also  the  most  extraor¬ 
dinary  maritime  discoveries.  The  sea-kings  of  Norway 
discovered  Iceland,  and  settled  it  A.  D.  860  and  A.  D.  874. 
They  discovered  and  settled  Greenland  A.  D.  982  and 
A.  D.  986.  On  the  western  coast  of  Greenland  they 
planted  colonies,  where  churches  were  built,  and  diocesan 
bishoprics  established,  which  lasted  between  four  and  five 
hundred  years.  Finally,  in  A.  D.  1000,  they  discovered, 
by  sailing  from  Greenland,  the  coast  of  Labrador,  Nova 
Scotia,  and  Massachusetts  Bay ;  and,  five  hundred  years 
before  the  discovery  of  Columbus,  gathered  grapes  and 
built  houses  on  the  southern  side  of  Cape  Cod.  These 
facts,  long  considered  mythical,  have  been  established,  to 
the  satisfaction  of  European  scholars,  by  the  publication 
of  Icelandic  contemporaneous  annals.  This  remarkable 
people  have  furnished  nearly  the  whole  population  of 
England  by  means  of  the  successive  conquests  of  Saxon, 
Danes,  and  Normans,  driving  the  Keltic  races  into  the 
mountainous  regions  of  Wales  and  North  Scotland, 
where  their  descendants  still  remain.  Colonizing  them¬ 
selves  also  everywhere  in  Northern  Europe,  and  even  in 

16 


362 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Italy  and  Greece,  they  have  left  the  familiar  stamp  of 
their  ideas  and  habits  in  all  our  modern  civilization.* 

§  2.  Idea  of  the  Scandinavian  Religion. 

The  central  idea  of  the  Scandinavian  belief  was  the 
free  struggle  of  soul  against  material  obstacles,  the  free¬ 
dom  of  the  Divine  will  in  its  conflict  with  the  opposing 
forces  of  nature.  The  gods  of  the  Scandinavians  were 
always  at  war.  It  was  a  system  of  dualism,  in  which 
sunshine,  summer,  and  growth  were  waging  perpetual 
battle  with  storm,  snow,  winter,  ocean,  and  terrestrial  fire. 
As  the  gods,  so  the  people.  War  was  their  business,  cour¬ 
age  their  duty,  fortitude  their  virtue.  The  conflict  of  life 
with  death,  of  freedom  with  fate,  of  choice  with  necessity, 
of  good  with  evil,  made  up  their  history  and  destiny. 

This  conflict  in  the  natural  world  was  especially  ap¬ 
parent  in  the  struggle,  annually  renewed,  between  sum¬ 
mer  and  winter.  Therefore  the  light  and  heat  gods  were 
their  friends,  those  of  darkness  and  cold  their  enemies. 
For  the  same  reason  that  the  burning  heat  of  summer, 
Typhon,  was  the  Satan  of  Egypt ;  so  in  the  North  the 
Jotuns,  ice-giants,  were  the  Scandinavian  devils. 

There  are  some  virtues  which  are  naturally  associated 
together,  such  as  the  love  of  truth,  the  sense  of  justice, 
courage,  and  personal  independence.  There  is  an  oppo¬ 
site  class  of  virtues  in  like  manner  naturally  grouped  to¬ 
gether,  —  sympathy,  mutual  helpfulness,  and  a  tendency 
to  social  organization.  The  serious  antagonism  in  the 
moral  world  is  that  of  truth  and  love.  Most  cases  of 
conscience  which  present  a  real  difficulty  resolve  them- 

*  See,  for  the  history  and  religion  of  the  Teutonic  and  Scandinavian 
race,  Csesar ;  Tacitus ;  Grimm’s  Deutsche  Mythologie  ;  Geschichte  und 
System  der  Altdeutschen  Religion,  von  Wilhelm  Muller;  Northern  My¬ 
thology,  by  Benjamin  Thorpe  ;  The  Sea-Kings  of  Norway,  by  S.  Laing  ; 
Manual  of  Scandinavian  Mythology,  by  G.  Pigott ;  Literature  and  Ro¬ 
mance  of  Northern  Europe,  by  William  and  Mary  Howitt ;  Die  Edda, 
von  Karl  Simrock  ;  Aryan  Mythology,  by  George  W.  Cox  ;  Norse  Tales, 
by  Dasent,  etc.  But  one  of  the  best  as  well  as  the  most  accessible  sum¬ 
maries  in  English  of  this  mythology  is  Mallet’s  Northern  Antiquities,  in 
Bohn’s  Antiquarian  Library.  This  edition  is  edited  by  Mr.  Blackwell 
with  great  judgment  and  learning. 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  363 


selves  into  a  conflict  of  truth  and  love.  It  is  hard  to  be 
true  without  hurting  the  feelings  of  others ;  it  is  hard  to 
sympathize  with  others  and  not  yield  a  little  of  our  in¬ 
ward  truth.  The  same  antagonism  is  found  in  the  relig¬ 
ions  of  the  world.  The  religions  in  which  truth,  justice, 
freedom,  are  developed  tend  to  isolation,  coldness,  and 
hardness.  On  the  other  hand,  the  religions  of  brother¬ 
hood  and  human  sympathy  tend  to  weakness,  luxury,  and 
slavery. 

The  religion  of  the  German  races,  which  was  the  nat¬ 
ural  growth  of  their  organization  and  moral  character, 
belonged  to  the  first  class.  It  was  a  religion  in  which 
truth,  justice,  self-respect,  courage,  freedom,  were  the  es¬ 
sential  elements.  The  gods  were  human,  as  in  the  Hel¬ 
lenic  system,  with  moral  attributes.  They  were  finite 
beings  and  limited  in  their  powers.  They  carried  on  a 
warfare  with  hostile  and  destructive  agents,  in  which  at 
last  they  were  to  be  vanquished  and  destroyed,  though  a 
restoration  of  the  world  and  the  gods  would  follow  that 
destruction. 

Such  was  the  idea  in  all  the  faith  of  the  Teutonic  race. 
The  chief  virtue  of  man  was  courage,  his  unpardonable 
sin  was  cowardice.  “  To  fight  a  good  fight,”  this  was  the 
way  to  Valhalla.  Odin  sent  his  Choosers  to  every  battle¬ 
field  to  select  the  brave  dead  to  become  his  companions 
in  the  joys  of  heaven. 

§  3.  The  Ecldas  and  their  Contents. 

m 

We  have  observed  that  Iceland  was  settled  from  Nor¬ 
way  in  the  ninth  century.  A  remarkable  social  life  grew 
up  there,  which  preserved  the  ideas,  manners,  and  relig¬ 
ion  of  the  Teutonic  people  in  their  purity  for  many  hun¬ 
dred  years,  and  whose  Eddas  and  Sagas  are  the  chief 
source  of  our  knowledge  of  the  race.  In  this  ultimate 
and  barren  region  of  the  earth,  where  seas  of  ice  make 
thousands  of  square  miles  desolate  and  impenetrable, 
where  icy  masses,  elsewhere  glaciers,  are  here  mountains, 
where  volcanoes  with  terrible  eruptions  destroy  whole 
regions  of  inhabited  country  in  a  few  days  with  lava,  vol- 


364 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


canic  sand,  and  boiling  water,  was  developed  to  its  highest 
degree  the  purest  form  of  Scandinavian  life. 

The  religion  of  the  Scandinavians  is  contained  in  the 
Eddas,  which  are  two,  —  the  poetic,  or  elder  Edda,  con¬ 
sisting  of  thirty-seven  poems,  first  collected  and  pub¬ 
lished  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century;  and  the 
younger,  or  prose  Edda,  ascribed  to  the  celebrated  Snorro 
Sturleson,  born  of  a  distinguished  Icelandic  family  in  the 
twelfth  century,  who,  after  leading  a  turbulent  and  am¬ 
bitious  life,  and  being  twice  chosen  supreme  magistrate, 
was  killed  A.  D.  1241.  The  principal  part  of  the  prose 
Edda  is  a  complete  synopsis  of  Scandinavian  mythology. 

The  elder  Edda,  which  is  the  fountain  of  the  mythol¬ 
ogy,  consists  of  old  songs  and  ballads,  which  had  come 
down  from  an  immemorial  past  in  the  mouths  of  the 
people,  but  were  first  collected  and  committed  to  writ¬ 
ing  by  Ssemund,  a  Christian  priest  of  Iceland  in  the 
eleventh  century.  He  was  a  Bard,  or  Scald,  as  well  as 
a  priest,  and  one  of  his  own  poems,  ‘‘The  Sun-Song,”  is 
in  his  Edda.  This  word  “  Edda  ”  means  “  great-grand¬ 
mother,”  the  ancient  mother  of  Scandinavian  knowledge. 
Or  perhaps  this  name  was  given  to  the  legends,  repeated 
by  grandmothers  to  their  grandchildren  by  the  vast  fire¬ 
sides  of  the  old  farm-houses  in  Iceland. 

This  rhythmical  Edda  consists  of  thirty-seven  poems.* 
It  is  in  two  parts,  —  the  first  containing  mythical  poems 
concerning  the  gods  and  the  creation ;  the  second,  the 
legends  of  the  heroes  of  Scandinavian  history.  This 
latter  portion  of  the  Edda  has  the  original  and  ancient 
fragments  from  which  the  German  Nibelungen-lied  was 
afterward  derived.  These  songs  are  to  the  German  poem 
what  the  ante-Homeric  ballad  literature  of  Greece  about 
Troy  and  Ulysses  was  to  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  as  re¬ 
duced  to  unity  by  Homer. 

The  first  poem  in  the  first  part  of  the  poetic  Edda  is 
the  Yoluspa,  or  Wisdom  of  Yala.  The  Yala  was  a  proph- 

*  See  Die  Edda,  von  Karl  Simrock.  Stuttgart,  1855.  Literature  and 
Romance  of  Northern  Europe,  by  William  and  Mary  Howitt.  London, 
1852.  Geschichte  und  System  der  Altdeutschen  Religion,  von  Wil¬ 
helm  Muller.  Gottingen,  1844.  Mallet’s  Northern  Antiquities,  edited 
by  Blackwell,  in  Bohn’s  Antiquarian  Library. 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  365 


etess,  possessing  vast  supernatural  knowledge.  Some 
antiquarians  consider  the  Vala  to  be  the  same  as  the 
Nornor,  or  Fates.  They  were  dark  beings,  whose  wisdom 
was  fearful  even  to  the  gods,  resembling  in  this  the  Greek 
Prometheus.  The  Voluspa  describes  the  universe  before 
the  creation,  in  the  morning  of  time,  before  the  great 
Ymir  lived,  when  there  was  neither  sea  nor  shore  nor 
heaven.  It  begins  thus,  Yala  speaking :  — 

“  I  command  the  devout  attention  of  all  noble  souls, 

Of  all  the  high  and  the  low  of  the  race  of  Heimdall ; 

I  tell  the  doings  of  the  All-Father, 

In  the  most  ancient  Sagas  which  come  to  my  mind. 

“  There  was  an  age  in  which  Ymir  lived, 

When  was  no  sea,  nor  shore,  nor  salt  waves  ; 

No  earth  below,  nor  heaven  above, 

No  yawning  abyss  and  no  grassy  land. 

“  Till  the  sons  of  Bors  lifted  the  dome  of  heaven, 

And  created  the  vast  Midgard  (earth)  below  ; 

Then  the  sun  of  the  south  rose  above  the  mountains, 

And  green  grasses  made  the  ground  verdant. 

“  The  sun  of  the  south,  companion  of  the  moon, 

Held  the  horses  of  heaven  with  his  right  hand  ; 

The  sun  knew  not  what  its  course  should  be, 

The  moon  knew  not  what  her  power  should  be. 

The  stars  knew  not  where  their  places  were. 

“  Then  the  counsellors  went  into  the  hall  of  judgment, 

And  the  all-holy  gods  held  a  council. 

They  gave  names  to  the  night  and  new  moon  ; 

They  called  to  the  morning  and  to  midday, 

To  the  afternoon  and  evening,  arranging  the  times.” 

The  Voluspa  goes  on  to  describe  how  the  gods  assem¬ 
bled  on  the  field  of  Ida,  and  proceeded  to  create  metals 
and  vegetables ;  after  that  the  race  of  dwarfs,  who  preside 
over  the  powers  of  nature  and  the  mineral  world.  Then 
Yala  narrates  how  the  three  gods,  Odin,  Honir,  and  Lodur, 
“  the  mighty  and  mild  Aser,”  found  Ask  and  Ernbla,  the 
Adam  and  Eve  of  the  Northern  legends,  lying  without  soul, 
sense,  motion,  or  color.  Odin  gave  them  their  souls,  Honir 
their  intellects,  Lodur  their  blood  and  colored  flesh.  Then 
comes  the  description  of  the  ash-tree  Yggdrasil,  of  the  three 
Norns,  or  sisters  of  destiny,  who  tell  the  Aser  their  doom. 


366 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


and  the  end  and  renewal  of  the  world ;  and  how,  at  last, 
one  being  mightier  than  all  shall  arrive :  — 

“  Then  comes  the  mighty  one  to  the  council  of  the  gods, 

He  with  strength  from  on  high  who  guides  all  things, 

He  decides  the  strife,  he  puts  an  end  to  struggle, 

He  ordains  eternal  laws.” 

In  the  same  way,  in  the  Song  of  Hyndla,  another  of 
the  poems  of  this  Edda,  is  a  prediction  of  one  who  shall 
come,  mightier  than  all  the  gods,  and  put  an  end  to  the 
strife  between  Aser  and  the  giants.  The  song  begins  :  — 

“  Wake,  maid  of  maidens  !  Awake,  my  friend  ! 

Hyndla,  sister,  dwelling  in  the  glens  ! 

It  is  night,  it  is  cloudy  ;  let  us  ride  together 
To  the  sacred  place,  to  Valhalla.” 

Hyndla  sings,  after  describing  the  heroes  and  princes 
born  of  the  gods  :  — 

“  One  shall  be  born  higher  than  all, 

Who  grows  strong  with  the  strength  of  the  earth  ; 

He  is  famed  as  the  greatest  of  rulers, 

United  with  all  nations  as  brethren. 

“  But  one  day  there  shall  come  another  mightier  than  he  ; 

.  But  I  dare  not  name  his  name. 

Few  are  able  to  see  beyond 

The  great  battle  of  Odin  and  the  Wolf.” 

Among  the  poems  of  the  elder  Edda  is  a  Book  of  Prov¬ 
erbs,  like  those  of  Solomon  in  their  sagacious  observa¬ 
tions  on  human  life  and  manners.  It  is  called  the 
Havamal.  At  first  we  should  hardly  expect  to  find  these 
maxims  of  worldly  wisdom  among  a  people  whose  chief 
business  was  war.  But  war  develops  cunning  as  well  as 
courage,  and  battles  are  won  by  craft  no  less  than  by 
daring.  Consequently,  among  a  warlike  people,  sagacity 
is  naturally  cultivated. 

The  Havamal  contains  (in  its  proverbial  section)  one 
hundred  and  ten  stanzas,  mostly  quatrains.  The  follow¬ 
ing  are  specimens :  — 

1.  “  Carefully  consider  the  end 
Before  you  go  to  do  anything, 

For  all  is  uncertain,  when  the  enemy 
Lies  in  wait  in  the  house. 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION. 


367 


4.  “  The  guest  who  enters 

Needs  water,  a  towel,  and  hospitality. 

A  kind  reception  secures  a  return 
In  word  and  in  deed. 

7.  “  The  wise  man,  on  coming  in, 

Is  silent  and  observes, 

Hears  with  his  ears,  looks  with  his  eyes, 

And  carefully  reflects  on  every  event. 

11.  “No  worse  a  companion  can  a  man  take  on  his  journey 
Than  drunkenness. 

Not  as  good  as  many  believe 
Is  beer  to  the  sons  of  men. 

The  more  one  drinks,  the  less  he  knows, 

And  less  power  has  he  over  himself. 

■% 

26.  “A  foolish  man,  in  company,  had  better  be  silent. 
Until  he  speaks  no  one  observes  his  folly. 

But  he  who  knows  little  does  not  know  this, 

When  he  had  better  be  silent. 

29.  “  Do  not  mock  at  the  stranger 

Who  comes  trusting  in  your  kindness  ; 

For  when  he  has  warmed  himself  at  your  fire, 

He  may  easily  prove  a  wise  man. 

34.  “  It  is  better  to  depart  betimes, 

And  not  to  go  too  often  to  the  same  house. 

Love  tires  and  turns  to  sadness 

When  one  sits  too  often  at  another  man’s  table. 

35.  “  One’s  own  house,  though  small,  is  better, 

For  there  thou  art  the  master. 

It  makes  a  man’s  heart  bleed  to  ask 

For  a  midday  meal  at  the  house  of  another. 

36.  “  One’s  own  house,  though  small,  is  better  ; 

At  home  thou  art  the  master. 

Two  goats  and  a  thatched  roof 
Are  better  than  begging. 

38.  “  It  is  hard  to  find  a  man  so  rich 
As  to  refuse  a  gift. 

It  is  hard  to  find  a  man  so  generous 
As  to  be  always  glad  to  lend. 

42.  “  Is  there  a  man  whom  you  distrust, 

And  who  yet  can  help  you  ? 

Be  smooth  in  words  and  false  in  thought. 

And  pay  back  his  deceit  with  cunning. 

48.  “I  hung  my  garments  on  two  scarecrows, 

And,  when  dressed,  they  seemed 


368 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Ready  for  the  battle. 

Unclothed  they  were  jeered  at  by  all. 

52.  “  Small  as  a  grain  of  sand 

Is  the  small  sense  of  a  fool ; 

Very  unequal  is  human  wisdom. 

The  world  is  made  of  two  unequal  halves. 

53.  “  It  is  well  to  be  wise  ;  it  is  not  well 

To  be  too  wise. 

He  has  the  happiest  life 

Who  knows  well  what  he  knows. 

54.  “  It  is  well  to  be  wise  ;  not  well 

To  be  too  wise. 

The  wise  man’s  heart  is  not  glad 

When  he  knows  too  much. 

55.  “  Two  burning  sticks  placed  together 

Will  burn  entirely  away. 

Man  grows  bright  by  the  side  of  man ; 

Alone,  he  remains  stupid.” 

Such  are  the  proverbs  of  the  Havamal.  This  sort  of 
proverbial  wisdom  may  have  come  down  from  the  days 
when  the  ancestors  of  the  Scandinavians  left  Central 
Asia.  It  is  like  the  fables  and  maxims  of  the  Hitopa- 
desa.* 

Another  of  these  poems  is  called  Odin’s  Song  of  Eunes. 
Eunes  were  the  Scandinavian  alphabet,  used  for  lapidary 
inscriptions,  a  thousand  of  which  have  been  discovered  in 
Sweden,  and  three  or  four  hundred  in  Denmark  and  Nor¬ 
way,  mostly  on  tombstones.  This  alphabet  consists  of 
sixteen  letters,  with  the  powers  of  F,  U,  TH,  O,  E,  K,  H, 
N,  I,  A,  S,  T,  B,  L,  M,  Y.  The  letters  E,  I,  T,  and  B  very 
nearly  resemble  the  Eoman  letters  of  the  same  values. 
A  magical  power  was  ascribed  to  these  Eunes,  and  they 
were  carved  on  sticks  and  then  scraped  off,  and  used  as 
charms.  These  rune-charms  were  of  different  kinds, 
eighteen  different  sorts  are  mentioned  in  this  song. 

A  song  of  Brynhilda  speaks  of  different  runes  which 
she  will  teach  Sigurd.  “  Runes  of  victory  must  those 
know,  to  conquer  thine  enemies.  They  must  be  carved 
on  the  blade  of  thy  sword.  Brink-Runes  must  thou 

*  Hitopadesa  ;  or,  Salutary  Counsels  of  Yisbnu  Sarman.  Translated 
from  the  Sanskrit  by  Francis  Johnson.  London  and  Hertford,  1848. 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  369 


"know  to  make  maidens  love  thee.  Thou  must  carve  them 
on  thy  drinking  horn.  Runes  of  freedom  must  thou 
know  to  deliver  the  captives.  Storm-Runes  must  thou 
know,  to  make  thy  vessel  go  safely  over  the  waves. 
Carve  them  on  the  mast  and  the  rudder.  Herl-Runes 
thou  must  know  to  cure  disease.  Carve  them  on  the 
hark  of  the  tree.  Speech-Runes  must  thou  know  to 
defeat  thine  enemy  in  council  of  words,  in  the  Thing. 
Mind-Runes  must  thou  know  to  have  good  and  wise 
thoughts.  These  are  the  Book-Runes,  and  Help-Runes, 
and  Drink-Runes,  and  Power-Runes,  precious  for  whoever 
can  use  them.” 

The  second  part  of  the  poetic  Edda  contains  the  stories 
of  the  old  heroes,  especially  of  Sigurd,  the  Achilles  of 
Northern  romance.  There  is  also  the  Song  of  Yolund, 
the  Northern  Smith,  the  German  Yulcan,  able  to  make 
swords  of  powerful  temper.  These  songs  and  ballads  are 
all  serious  and  grave,  and  sometimes  tender,  having  in 
them  something  of  the  solemn  tone  of  the  old  Greek 
tragedy. 

The  prose  Edda,  as  we  have  said,  was  the  work  of 
.  Snorro  Sturleson,  born  in  Iceland  in  1178.*  He  proba¬ 
bly  transcribed  most  of  it  from  the  manuscripts  in  his 
hands,  or  which  were  accessible  to  him,  and  from  the  oral 
traditions  which  had  been  preserved  in  the  memory  of 
the  Skalds.  His  other  chief  work  was  the  Heimskrin- 
gla,  or  collection  of  Saga  concerning  the  history  of  the 
Scandinavians.  In  his  preface  to  this  last  book  he  says  he 
“  wrote  it  down  from  old  stories  told  by  intelligent  peo¬ 
ple  ”  ;  or  from  “  ancient  family  registers  containing  the 
pedigrees  of  kings,”  or  from  “  old  songs  and  ballads  which 
our  fathers  had  for  their  amusement.” 

The  prose  Edda  begins  with  “  The  deluding-  of  Gylfi,” 
an  ancient  king  of  Sweden.  He  was  renowned  for  his 
wisdom  and  love  of  knowledge,  and  determined'  to  visit 
Asgard,  the  home  of  the  iEsir,  to  learn  something  of.  the 
wisdom  of  the  gods.  They,  however,  foreseeing  his  com¬ 
ing,  prepared  various  illusions  to  deceive  him.  Among; 

*  See  Memoir  of  Snorro  Sturleson,  in  Laing’s  Sea-Kings  of  Nor¬ 
way. 


16* 


X 


370 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


other  things,  he  saw  three  thrones  raised  one  above  an¬ 
other. 

“  He  afterwards  beheld  three  thrones  raised  one  above  an¬ 
other,  with  a  man  sitting  on  each  of  them.  Upon  his  asking 
what  the  names  of  these  lords  might  be,  his  guide  answered  : 
‘He  who 'sits  on  the  lowest  throne  is  a  king;  his  name  is 
Har  (the  High  or  Lofty  One)  ;  the  second  is  Jafnhar  (i.  e. 
equal  to  the  High) ;  but  he  who  sitteth  on  the  highest  throne 
is  called  Thridi  (the  Third).’  Har,  perceiving  the  stranger, 
asked  him  what  his  errand  was,  adding  that  he  should  be  wel¬ 
come  to  eat  and  drink  without  cost,  as  were  all  those  who  re¬ 
mained  in  Hava  Hall.  Gangler  said  he  desired  first  to  ascer¬ 
tain  whether  there  was  any  person  present  renowned  for  his 
wisdom. 

“  ‘  If  thou  art  not  the  most  knowing,’  replied  Har,  ‘  I  fear 
thou  wilt  hardly  return  safe.  But  go,  stand  there  below,  and 
propose  thy  questions ;  here  sits  one  who  will  be  able  to  an¬ 
swer  them.’ 

“  Gangler  thus  began  his  discourse  :  ‘  Who  is  the  first,  or 
eldest  of  the  gods  1  ’ 

“  ‘  In  our  language,’  replied  Har,  ‘  he  is  called  Alfadir  (All- 
Father,  or  the  Father  of  All) ;  but  in  the  old  Asgard  he  had 
twTelve  names.’ 

“  ‘  Where  is  this  God  1  ’  said  Gangler ;  e  what  is  his  power  I 
and  what  hath  he  done  to  display  his  glory  1  ’ 

“  ‘  He  liveth,’  replied  Har,  ‘  from  all  ages,  he  governeth  all 
realms,  and  swayeth  all  things  great  and  small.  ’ 

“  ‘  He  hath  formed,’  added  Jafnhar,  ‘  heaven  and  earth,  and 
the  air,  and  all  things  thereunto  belonging.’ 

“  ‘  And  what  is  more,’  continued  Thridi,  ‘  he  hath  made 
man,  and  given  him  a  soul  which  shall  live  and  never  perish, 
though  the  body  shall  have  mouldered  away,  or  have  been 
burnt  to  ashes.  And  all  that  are  righteous  shall  dwell  with 
him  in  the  place  called  Gimli,  or  Vingolf;  but  the  wicked  shall 
go  to  Hel,  and  thence  to  Niflhel,  which  is  below,  in  the  ninth 
world.’” 

Of  the  creation  of  the  world  the  Eddas  thus  speak : 
In  the  day-spring  of  the  ages  there  was  neither  seas  nor 
shore  nor  refreshing  breeze ;  there  was  neither  earth 
below  nor  heaven  above.  The  whole  was  only  one  vast 
abyss,  without  herb  and  without  seas.  The  sun  had  no 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  371 


palace,  the  stars  no  place,  the  moon  no  power.  After  this 
there  was  a  bright  shining  world  of  flame  to  the  South, 
and  another,  a  cloudy  and  dark  one,  toward  the  North. 
Torrents  of  venom  flowed  from  the  last  into  the  abyss, 
and  froze,  and  filled  it  full  of  ice.  But  the  air  oozed  up 
through  it  in  icy  vapors,  which  were  melted  into  living 
drops  by  a  warm  breath  from  the  South  ;  and  from  these 
came  the  giant  Ymir.  From  him  came  a  race  of  wicked 
giants.  Afterward,  from  these  same  drops  of  fluid  seeds, 
children  of  heat  and  cold,  came  the  mundane  cow, 
whose  milk  fed  the  giants.  Then  arose  also,  in  a  myste¬ 
rious  manner,  Bor,  the  father  of  three  sons,  Odin,  Yili, 
and  Ye,  who,  after  several  adventures,  —  having  killed 
the  giant  Ymir,  and  made  out  of  his  body  Heaven  and 
Earth,  —  proceeded  to  form  a  man  and  woman  named 
Ask  and  Embla,  Chaos  having  thus  disappeared,  Odin 
became  the  All-Father,  creator  of  gods  and  men,  with 
Earth  for  his  wife,  and  the  powerful  Thor  for  his  oldest 
son.  So  much  for  the  cosmogony  of  the  Edda. 

On  this  cosmogony,  we  may  remark  that  it  belongs  to 
the  class  of  development,  or  evolution,  but  combined 
with  a  creation.  The  Hindoo,  Gnostic,  and  Platonic 
theories  suppose  the  visible  world  to  have  emanated 
from  God,  by  a  succession  of  fallings,  from  the  most  ab¬ 
stract  spirit  to  the  most  concrete  matter.  The  Greeks 
and  Romans,  on  the  contrary,  suppose  all  things  to  have 
come  by  a  process  of  evolution,  or  development  from  an 
original  formless  and  chaotic  matter.  The  resemblance 
between  the  Greek  account  of  the  origin  of  gods  and 
men  and  that  of  the  Scandinavians  is  striking.  Both 
systems  begin  in  materialism,  and  are  radically  opposed 
to  the  spiritualism  of  the  other  theory  ;  and  in  its  account 
of  the  origin  of  all  things  from  nebulous  vapors  and  heat 
the  Edda  reminds  us  of  the  modern  scientific  theories  on 
the  same  subject. 

After  giving  this  account  of  the  formation  of  the  world, 
of  the  gods,  and  the  first  pair  of  mortals,  the  Edda  next 
speaks  of  night  and  day,  of  the  sun  and  moon,  of  the 
rainbow  bridge  from  earth  to  heaven,  and  of  the  great 
Ash-tree  where  the  gods  sit  in  council.  Night  was  the 


372 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


daughter  of  a  giant,  and,  like  all  her  race,  of  a  dark  com¬ 
plexion.  She  married  one  of  the  iEsir,  or  children  of 
Odin,  and  their  son  was  Day,  a  child  light  and  beautiful, 
like  its  father.  The  Sun  and  Moon  were  two  children,  the 
Moon  being  the  boy,  and  the  Sun  the  girl ;  which  peculiar¬ 
ity  of  gender  still  holds  in  the  German  language.  The 
Edda  gives  them  chariot  and  horses  with  which  to  drive 
daily  round  the  heavens,  and  supposes  their  speed  to  be 
occasioned  by  their  fear  of  two  gigantic  wolves,  from  Jotun- 
heim,  or  the  world  of  darkness,  which  pursue  them.  The 
rainbow  is  named  Bifrost,  woven  of  three  hues,  and  by 
this,  as  a  bridge,  the  gods  ride  up  every  day  to  heaven 
from  the  holy  fountain  below  the  earth.  Near  this  foun¬ 
tain  dwell  three  maidens,  below  the  great  Ash-tree,  who 
decide  every  man’s  fate.  These  Fates,  or  Norns,  are 
named  Urd,  Verdandi,  and  Skuld,  —  three  words  meaning 
“past,”  “present,”  and  “future.”  From  Urd  comes  our 
word  “  weird,”  and  the  weird  sisters  of  Shakespeare.  The 
red  in  the  rainbow  is  burning  fire,  which  prevents  the  frost- 
giants  of  Jotunheim  from  going  up  to  heaven,  which 
they  otherwise  might  do.  This  region  of  the  gods  is 
called  Asgard,  and  contains  Valhalla,  where  they  feast 
every  day,  with  all  heroes  who  have  died  in  battle  ;  drink¬ 
ing  mead,  but  not  out  of  their  enemies’  skulls,  as  has 
been  so  often  said.  This  mistake  modern  scholars  have 
attributed  to  a  mistranslation  of  a  word  in  the  original, 
which  means  “  curved  horns,”  the  passage  being,  “  Soon 
shall  we  drink  ale  out  of  the  curved  branches  of  the 
skull,”  that  is,  of  an  animal.  Their  food  is  the  flesh  of 
a  boar,  which  is  renewed  every  day. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Odin  and  the  other  gods 
lived  quietly  on  their  Olympus  without  adventures. 
Many  entertaining  ones  are  narrated  in  the  Edda,  had  we 
room  to  tell  them.  One  of  these  describes  the  death  of 
Baldur  the  Good,  whom  all  beings  loved.  Having  been 
tormented  with  bad  dreams,  indicating  that  his  life  was 
in  danger,  he  told  them  to  the  assembled  gods,  who  made 
all  creatures  and  things,  living  or  dead,  take  an  oath  to 
do  him  no  harm.  This  oath  was  taken  by  fire  and  water, 
iron  and  all  other  metals,  stones,  earths,  diseases,  poisons, 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION  373 

beasts,  birds,  and  creeping  things.  After  this,  they 
amused  themselves  at  their  meeting  in  setting  Baldur  up 
as  a  mark ;  some  hurling  darts  or  shooting  arrows  at  him, 
and  some  cutting  at  him  with  swords  and  axes ;  and  as 
nothing  hurt  him,  it  was  accounted  a  great  honor  done 
to  Baldur.  But  wicked  Loki,  or  Loke,  was  envious  at 
this ;  and,  assuming  the  form  of  a  woman,  he  inquired  of 
the  goddess  who  had  administered  the  oath,  whether  all 
things  had  taken  it.  She  said  everything  except  one 
little  shrub  called  mistletoe,  which  she  thought  too  young 
and  feeble  to  do  any  harm.  Therefore  Loki  got  the 
mistletoe,  and,  bringing  it  to  one  of  the  gods,  persuaded 
him  to  throw  it  at  Baldur,  who,  pierced  to  the  heart,  fell 
dead.  The  grief  was  immense.  An  especial  messenger 
was  despatched  to  Queen  Hela,  in  Hell,  to  inquire  if,  on 
any  terms,  Baldur  might  be  ransomed.  For  nine  days 
and  nights  he  rode  through  dark  chasms  till  he  crossed 
the  river  of  Death,  and  entering  the  kingdom  of  Hela, 
made  known  his  request.  Hela  replied  that  it  should  now 
be  discovered  whether  Baldur  was  so  universally  loved  as 
was  represented  ;  for  that  she  would  permit  him  to  return 
to  Asgard  if  all  creatures  and  all  things,  without  excep¬ 
tion,  would  weep  for  him.  The  gods  then  despatched 
messengers  through  the  world  to  beg  all  things  to  weep 
for  Baldur,  which  they  immediately  did.  Then  you 
might  have  seen,  not  only  crocodiles  but  the  most  fero¬ 
cious  beasts  dissolved  in  tears.  Fishes  wept  in  the  water, 
and  birds  in  the  air.  Stones  and  trees  were  covered  with 
pellucid  dew-drops,  and,  for  all  we  know,  this  general 
grief  may  have  been  the  occasion  of  some  of  the  deluges 
reported  by  geology.  The  messengers  returned,  thinking 
the  work  done,  when  they  found  an  old  hag  sitting  in  a 
cavern,  and  begged  her  to  wTeep  Baldur  out  of  Hell.  But 
she  declared  that  she  could  gain  nothing  by  so  doing,  and 
that  Baldur  might  stay  where  he  was,  like  other  people 
as  good  as  he ;  planting  herself  apparently  on  the  great 
but  somewhat  selfish  principle  of  non-intervention.  So 
Baldur  remains  in  the  halls  of  Hela.  But  this  old 
woman  did  not  go  unpunished.  She  wras  shrewdly  sus¬ 
pected  to  be  Loki  himself  in  disguise,  and  on  inquiry  so  it 


374 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


turned  out.  Whereupon  a  hot  pursuit  of  Loki  took  place, 
who,  after  changing  himself  into  many  forms,  was  caught, 
and  chained  under  sharp-pointed  rocks  below  the  earth. 

The  adventures  of  Thor  are  very  numerous.  The 
pleasantest,  perhaps,  is  the  account  of  his  journey  to 
Jotunheim,  to  visit  his  enemies,  the  giants  of  Cold  and 
Darkness.  On  his  way,  being  obliged  to  pass  the  night 
in  the  forest,  he  came  to  a  spacious  hall,  with  an  open 
door,  reaching  from  one  side  to  the  other.  In  this  he 
went  to  sleep,  but  being  aroused  by  an  awful  earthquake, 
Thor  and  his  companions  crept  into  a  chamber  which 
opened  out  of  the  hall.  When  day  came  they  found, 
sleeping  near  them,  an  enormous  giant,  so  large,  that,  as  it 
appeared,  they  had  passed  the  night  in  the  thumb  of  his 
glove.  They  travelled  with  him  all  day ;  and  the  next 
night  Thor  considered  himself  justified  in  killing  this  giant, 
who  was  one  of  their  enemies.  Three  times  he  launched 
his  mallet  with  fearful  force  at  the  giant’s  head,  and  three 
times  the  giant  awoke  to  inquire  whether  it  was  a  leaf 
or  an 'acorn  which  had  fallen  on  his  face.  After  taking 
leave  of  their  enormous  and  invulnerable  companion,  they 
arrived  at  the  abodes  of  Jotunheim,  and  the  city  of  Ut- 
gard,  and  entered  the  city  of  the  king,  Utgard  Loki. 
This  king  inquired  what  great  feat  Thor  and  his  com¬ 
panions  could  do.  One  professed  to  be  a  great  eater  ;  on 
which  the  king  of  giants  called  one  of  his  servants  named 
Logi,  and  placed  between  them  a  trough  filled  with  meat. 
Thor’s  companion  ate  his  share,  but  Logi  ate  meat  and 
bone  too,  and  the  trough  into  the  bargain,  and  was  con¬ 
sidered  to  have  conquered.  Thor’s  other  companion  was 
a  great  runner,  and  was  set  to  run  with  a  young  man 
named  Hugi,  who  so  outstripped  him  that  he  reached  the 
goal  before  the  other  had  gone  half-way.  Then  Thor  was 
asked  what  he  could  do  himself.  He  said  he  would 
engage  in  a  drinking-match,  and  was  presented  with  a 
large  horn,  and  was  requested  to  empty  it  at  a  single 
draught,  which  he  expected  easily  to  do,  but  on  looking 
in  the  liquor  seemed  scarcely  diminished.  The  second 
time  he  tried,  and  lowered  it  slightly.  A  third,  and  it  was 
'  still  only  sunk  half  an  inch.  Whereupon  he  was  laughed 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  375 


at,  and  called  for  some  new  feat.  “  We  have  a  trifling 
game  here,”  answered  the  king,  “  in  which  we  exercise 
none  but  children.  It  is  merely  to  lift  my  cat  from 
the  ground.”  Thor  put  forth  his  whole  might,  but  could 
only  lift  up  one  foot,  and  was  laughed  at  again.  Angry 
at  this,  he  called  for  some  one  to  wrestle  with  him.  “  My 
men,”  said  King  Utgard,  “  would  think  it  beneath  them  to 
wrestle  with  thee,  but  let  some  one  call  my  old  nurse  Eld, 
and  let  Thor  wrestle  with  her.”  A  toothless  old  woman 
entered  the  hall,  and  after  a  violent  struggle  Thor  began 
to  lose  his  footing,  and  went  home  excessively  mortified. 
But  it  turned  out  afterward  that  all  this  was  illusion.  The 
three  blows  of  the  mallet,  instead  of  striking  the  giant’s 
head,  had  fallen  on  a  mountain,  which  he  had  dexterously 
put  between,  and  made  three  deep  ravines  in  it,  which 
remain  to  this  day.  The  triumphant  eater  was  Fire  itself, 
disguised  as  a  man.  The  successful  runner  was  Thought. 
The  horn  out  of  which  Thor  tried  to  drink  was  connected 
with  the  ocean,  which  was  lowered  a  few  inches  by  his 
tremendous  draughts.  The  cat  was  the  great  Midgard 
Serpent,  which  goes  round  the  world,  and  Thor  had  actu¬ 
ally  pulled  the  earth  a  little  way  out  of  its  place ;  and  the 
old  woman  was  Old  Age  itself.* 

According  to  this  mythology,  there  is  coming  a  time  in 
which  the  world  will  be  destroyed  by  fire  and  afterward 
renewed.  This  will  be  preceded  by  awful  disasters  ;  dread¬ 
ful  winters ;  wars,  and  desolations  on  earth ;  cruelty  and 
deceit ;  the  sun  and  moon  will  be  devoured,  the  stars 
hurled  from  the  sky,  and  the  earth  violently  shaken.  The 
Wolf  (Fenrir),  the  awful  Midgard  Serpent,  Loki,  and  Hela 
come  to  battle  with  the  gods.  The  great  Asli-tree  will 
shake  with  fear.  The  Wolf  (Fenrir)  breaks  loose,  and 
opens  his  enormous  mouth.  The  lower  jaw  reaches  to 
the  earth,  and  the  upper  to  heaven.  The  Midgard  Ser¬ 
pent,  by  the  side  of  the  Wolf,  vomits  forth  floods  of 

*  It  would  appear  from  this  legend  that  the  gods  are  idealizations  of 
human  will  set  over  against  the  powers  of  nature.  The  battle  of  the 
gods  and  giants  represents  the  struggles  of  the  soul  against  the  inexora¬ 
ble  laws  of  nature,  freedom  against  fate,  the  spirit  with  the  flesh,  mind 
with  matter,  human  hope  with  change,  disappointment,  loss;  “the 
emergency  of  the  case  with  the  despotism  of  the  rule.” 


I 


376  TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 

poison.  Heaven  is  rent  in  twain,  and  Surtur  and  tlie 
sons  of  Muspell  ride  through  the  breach.  These  are  the 
•children  of  Light  and  Fire,  who  dwell  in  the  South,  and 
who  seem  to  belong  neither  to  the  race  of  gods  nor  to  that 
of  giants,  but  to  a  third  party,  who  only  interfere  at  the 
close  of  the  conflict.  While  the  battle  goes  on  between 
the  gods  and  the  giants  they  keep  their  effulgent  bands 
apart  on  the  field  of  battle.  Meantime  Heimdall  —  door¬ 
keeper  of  the  gods  —  sounds  his  mighty  trumpet,  which 
is  heard  through  the  whole  universe,  to  summon  the  gods 
to  conflict.  The  gods,  or  iEsir,  and  all  the  heroes  of  Yal- 
halla,  arm  themselves  and  go  to  the  field.  Odin  fights 
with  the  Wolf;  Thor  with  the  Midgard  Serpent,  whom  he 
kills,  but  being  suffocated  with  the  floods  of  venom  dies 
himself.  The  Wolf  swallows  Odin,  but  at  that  instant 
Yidar  sets  his  foot  on  its  lower  jaw,  and  laying  hold  of 
the  upper  jaw  tears  it  apart.  He  accomplishes  this  be¬ 
cause  he  has  on  the  famous  shoe,  the  materials  of  which 
have  been  collecting  for  ages,  it  being  made  of  the  shreds 
of  shoe-leather  which  are  cut  off  in  making  shoes,  and 
which,  on  this  account,  the  religious  Scandinavians  were 
careful  to  throw  away.  Loki  and  Heimdall  fight  and 
kill  each  other.  After  this  Surtur  darts  fire  over  the 
whole  earth,  and  the  whole  universe  is  consumed.  But 
then  comes  the  restitution  of  all  things.  There  will  rise 
out  of  the  sea  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth.  Two  gods, 
Yidar  and  Yali,  and  two  human  beings,  a  man  and 
woman,  survive  the  conflagration,  and  with  their  descend¬ 
ants  occupy  the  heavens  and  earth.  The  suns  of  Thor 
come  with  their  father’s  hammer  and  put  an  end  to  war. 
Baldur,  and  Hodur,  the  blind  god,  come  up  from  Hell,  and 
the  daughter  of  the  Sun,  more  beautiful  than  its  mother, 
occupies  its  place  in  the  skies. 

§  4.  The  Gods  of  Scandinavia. 

We  can  give  no  better  account  of  the  Horse  pantheon 
than  by  extracting  the  passages  from  the  prose  Edda,  which 
describe  the  gods.  We  take  the  translation  in  Mallet’s 
Northern  Antiquities :  — 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  377 


“  OF  ODIN. 

“  ‘ 1  must  now  ask  thee/  •  said  Gangler,  ‘  who  are  the  gods 
that  men  are  bound  to  believe  in  ?  ’ 

“  ‘  There  are  twelve  gods/  replied  Har,  ‘  to  whom  divine 
honors  ought  to  be  rendered.’ 

“  ‘Nor  are  the  goddesses/  added  Jafnhar,  ‘less  divine  and 
mighty.’ 

“  ‘  The  first  and  eldest  of  the  iEsir,’  continued  Thridi,  ‘  is 
Odin.  He  governs  all  things,  and  although  the  other  deities 
are  powerful,  they  all  serve  and  obey  him  as  children  do  their 
father.  Frigga  is  his  wife.  She  foresees  the  destinies  of  men, 
but  never  reveals  what  is  to  come.  For  thus  it  is  said  that 
Odin  himself  told  Loki,  “  Senseless  Loki,  why  wilt  thou  pry 
into  futurity?  Frigga  alone  knoweth  the  destinies  of  all,  though 
she  telleth  them  never.” 

“  ‘  Odin  is  named  Alfadir  (All-father),  because  he  is  the 
father  of  all  the  gods,  and  also  Valfadir  (Choosing  Father),  be¬ 
cause  he  chooses  for  his  sons  all  those  who  fall  in  combat. 
For  their  abode  he  has  prepared  Valhalla  and  Vingolf,  where 
they  are  called  Einherjar  (Heroes  or  Champions).  Odin  is  also 
called  Hangagud,  Haptagud,  and  Farmagud,  and,  besides  these, 
was  named  in  many  ways  when  he  went  to  King  Geirraudr.’ .... 

“of  THOR. 

“  ‘  I  now  ask  thee/  said  Gangler,  ‘  what  are  the  names  of 
the  other  gods  ?  What  are  their  functions,  and  what  have  they  • 
brought  to  pass  ?  ’ 

“‘The  mightiest  of  them/  replied  Har,  ‘is  Thor.  He  is 
called  Asa-Thor  and  Auku-Thor,  and  is  the  strongest  of  gods 
and  men.  His  realm  is  named  Thrudvang,  and  his  mansion 
Bilskirnir,  in  which  are  five  hundred  and  forty  halls.  It  is 
the  largest  house  ever  built.  Thus  it  is  called  in  the  Grimnis- 
mal :  — 

‘  ‘  Five  hundred  halls 
And  forty  more, 

Methinketh,  hath 
Bowed  Bilskirnir. 

Of  houses  roofed 
There  ’s  none  I  know 
My  son’s  surpassing.” 

“  *  Thor  has  a  car  drawn  by  two  goats  called  Tanngniost  and 
Tanngrisnir.  From  his  driving  about  in  this  car  he  is  called 
Auku-Thor  (Charioteer-Thor).  He  likewise  possesses  three 


378 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


very  precious  things.  The  first  is  a  mallet  called  Mjolnir, 
which  both  the  Frost  and  Mountain  Giants  know  to  their  cost 
when  they  see  it  hurled  against  them  in  the  air  ;  and  no  won¬ 
der,  for  it  has  split  many  a  skull  of  their  fathers  and  kindred. 
The  second  rare  thing  he  possesses  is  called  the  belt  of  strength 
or  prowess  (Megingjardir).  When  he  girds  it  about  him  his  di¬ 
vine  might  is  doubly  augmented ;  the  third,  also  very  precious, 
being  his  iron  gauntlets,  which  he  is  obliged  to  put  on  when¬ 
ever  he  would  lay  hold  of  the  handle  of  his  mallet.  There  is 
no  one  so  wise  as  to  be  able  to  relate  all  Thor’s  marvellous  ex¬ 
ploits,  yet  I  could  tell  thee  so  many  myself  that  hours  would 
be  whiled  away  ere  all  that  I  know  had  been  recounted.’ 

“  OF  BALDUR. 

“  i  I  would  rather,’  said  Gangler,  ‘  hear  something  about  the 
other  ^Esir.’ 

“  4  The  second  son  of  Odin,’  replied  Har,  ‘  is  Baldur,  and  it 
may  be  truly  said  of  him  that  he  is  the  best,  and  that  all  man¬ 
kind  are  loud  in  his  praise.  So  fair  and  dazzling  is  he  in 
form  and  features,  that  rays  of  light  seem  to  issue  from  him  ; 
and  thou  mayst  have  some  idea  of  the  beauty  of  his  hair 
■when  I  tell  thee  that  the  whitest  of  all  plants  is  called  Baldur's 
brow.  Baldur  is  the  mildest,  the  wisest,  and  the  most  eloquent 
of  all  the  JSsir,  yet  such  is  his  nature  that  the  judgment  he 
has  pronounced  can  never  be  altered.  He  dwells  in  the  heav¬ 
enly  mansion  called  Breidablik,  in  which  nothing  unclean  can 
enter.  As  it  is  said, — 

“  ’T  is  Breidablik  called, 

Where  Baldur  the  Fair 
Hath  built  him  a  bower, 

In  that  land  where  I  know 
The  least  loathliness  lietk.”  ' 

“of  njord. 

“  1  The  third  god,’  continued  Har,  1  is  Njord,  who  dwells  in 
the  heavenly  region  called  Noatun.  He  rules  over  the  winds, 
and  checks  the  fury  of  the  sea  and  of  fire,  and  is  therefore  in¬ 
voked  by  seafarers  and  fishermen.  He  is  so  wealthy  that  he 
can  give  possessions  and  treasures  to  those  who  call  on  him 
for  them.  Yet  Njord  is  not  of  the  lineage  of  the  JEsir,  for  he 
was  born  and  bred  in  Vanaheim.  But  the  Vanir  gave  him  as 
hostage  to  the  iEsir,  receiving  from  them  in  his  stead  Hoenir. 
By  this  means  was  peace  re-established  between  the  iEsir  and 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  KELIGION.  379 


Vanir.  Njord  took  to  wife  Skadi,  the  daughter  of  the  giant 
Thjassi.  She  preferred  dwelling  in  the  abode  formerly  belong¬ 
ing  to  her  father,  which  is  situated  among  rocky  mountains,  in 
the  region  called  Thrymheim,  but  Njord  loved  to  reside  near 
the  sea.  They  at  last  agreed  that  they  should  pass  together 
nine  nights  in  Thrymheim,  and  then  three  in  Noatun.  One 
day,  when  Njord  came  back  from  the  mountains  to  Noatun,  he 
thus  sang  :  — 

“  Of  mountains  I ’m  weary, 

Not  long  was  I  there, 

Not  more  than  nine  nights  ; 

But  the  howl  of  the  wolf 
Methought  sounded  ill 
To  the  song  of  the  swan-bird.” 

“  1  To  which  Skadi  sang  in  reply  :  — 

“  Ne’er  can  I  sleep 
In  my  couch  on  the  strand, 

For  the  screams  of  the  sea-fowl. 

The  mew  as  he  conies 
Every  morn  from  the  main 
Is  sure  to  awake  me.” 

“  ‘  Skadi  then  returned  to  the  rocky  mountains,  and  abode 
in  Thrymheim.  There,  fastening  on  her  snow-skates  and  taking 
her  bow,  she  passes  her  time  in  the  chase  of  savage  beasts, 
and  is  called  the  Ondur  goddess,  or  Ondurdis . * 

“  OF  THE  GOD  FREY,  AND  THE  GODDESS  FREYJA. 

“  ‘  Njord  had  afterwards,  at  his  residence  at  Noatun,  two 
children,  a  son  named  Frey,  and  a  daughter  called  Freyja, 
both  of  them  beauteous  and  mighty.  Frey  is  one  of  the  most 
celebrated  of  the  gods.  He  presides  over  rain  and  sunshine, 
and  all  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  should  be  invoked  in  order 
to  obtain  good  harvests,  and  also  for  peace.  He,  moreover, 
dispenses  wealth  among  men.  Freyja  is  the  most  propitious 
of  the  goddesses  ;  her  abode  in  heaven  is  called  Folkvang.  To 
whatever  field  of  battle  she  rides,  she  asserts  her  right  to  one 
half  of  the  slain,  the  other  half  belonging  to  Odin . * 

“  OF  TYR. 

“  ‘  There  is  Tyr,  who  is  the  most  daring  and  intrepid  of  all 
the  gods.  ’T  is  he  who  dispenses  valor  in  war,  hence  warriors 
do  well  to  invoke  him.  It  has  become  proverbial  to  say  of  a 
man  who  surpasses  all  others  in  valor  that  he  is  Tyr-strong,  or 


380 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


valiant  as  Tyr.  A  man  noted  for  his  wisdom  is  also  said  to  be 
“  wise  as  Tyr.”  Let  me  give  thee  a  proof  of  his  intrepidity. 
When  the  JSsir  were  trying  to  persuade  the  wolf,  Fenrir,  to 
let  himself  be  bound  up  with  the  chain,  Gleipnir,  he,  fearing 
that  they  would  never  afterwards  unloose  him,  only  consented 
on  the  condition  that  while  they  were  chaining  him  he  should 
keep  Tyr’s  right  hand  between  his  jaws.  Tyr  did  not  hesitate 
to  put  his  hand  in  the  monster’s  mouth,  but  when  Fenrir  per¬ 
ceived  that  the  ^Esir  had  no  intention  to  unchain  him,  he  bit 
the  hand  off  at  that  point,  which  has  ever  since  been  called 
the  wolf’s  joint  (ulflidr).  From  that  time  Tyr  has  had  but 
one  hand.  He  is  not  regarded  as  a  peacemaker  among  men.’ 

“  OF  THE  OTHER  GODS. 

“  *  There  is  another  god,’  continued  Har,  1  named  Bragi,  who 
is  celebrated  for  his  wisdom,  and  more  especially  for  his  elo¬ 
quence  and  correct  forms  of  speech.  He  is  not  only  eminently 
skilled  in  poetry,  but  the  art  itself  is  called  from  his  name 
Bragr ,  which  epithet  is  also  applied  to  denote  a  distinguished 
poet  or  poetess.  His  wife  is  named  Iduna.  She  keeps  in  a 
box  the  apples  which  the  gods,  when  they  feel  old  age  ap¬ 
proaching,  have  only  to  taste  of  to  become  young  again.  It  is 
in  this  manner  that  they  will  be  kept  in  renovated  youth  until 
Ragnarok . 

“  ‘  One  of  the  gods  is  Heimdall,  called  also  the  White  God. 
He  is  the  son  of  nine  virgins,  who  were  sisters,  and  is  a  very 
sacred  and  powerful  deity.  He  also  bears  the  appellation  of 
the  Gold-toothed,  on  account  of  his  teeth  being  of  pure  gold, 
and  also  that  of  Hallinskithi.  His  horse  is  called  Gulltopp,  and 
he  dwells  in  Himinbjorg  at  the  end  of  Bifrost.  He  is  the 
warder  of  the  gods,  and  is  therefore  placed  on  the  borders  of 
heaven,  to  prevent  the  giants  from  forcing  their  way  over  the 
bridge.  He  requires  less  sleep  than  a  bird,  and  sees  by  night, 
as  well  as  by  day,  a  hundred  miles  around  him.  So  acute  is 
his  ear  that  no  sound  escapes  him,  for  he  can  even  hear  the 
grass  growing  on  the  earth,  and  the  wool  on  a  sheep’s  back. 
He  has  a  horn  called  the  Gjallar-horn,  which  is  heard  through¬ 
out  the  universe . 

u  ‘  Among  the  A3sir,’  continued  Har,  ‘  we  also  reckon  Hodur, 
who  is  blind,  but  extremely  strong.  Both  gods  and  men  would 
be  very  glad  if  they  never  had  occasion  to  pronounce  his  name, 
for  they  will  long  have  cause  to  remember  the  deed  perpetrated 
by  his  hand. 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  381 


“  1  Another  god  is  Vidar,  surnamed  the  Silent,  who  wears 
very  thick  shoes.  He  is  almost  as  strong  as  Thor  himself, 
and  the  gods  place  great  reliance  on  him  in  all  critical  con¬ 
junctures. 

“  ‘  Yali,  another  god,  is  the  son  of  Odin  and  Rinda;  he  is 
bold  in  war,  and  an  excellent  archer. 

“  ‘  Another  is  called  Ullur,  who  is  the  son  of  Sif,  and  step¬ 
son  of  Thor.  He  is  so  well  skilled  in  the  use  of  the  bow,  and 
can  go  so  fast  on  his  snow-skates,  that  in  these  arts  no  one  can 
contend  with  him.  He  is  also  very  handsome  in  his  person, 
and  possesses  every  quality  of  a  warrior,  wherefore  it  is  befit¬ 
ting  to  invoke  him  in  single  combats. 

“  ‘  The  name  of  another  god  is  Forseti,  who  is  the  son  of 
Baldur  and  Nanna,  the  daughter  of  Nef.  He  possesses  the 
heavenly  mansion  called  Glitnir,  and  all  disputants  at  law  who 
bring  their  cases  before  him  go  away  perfectly  reconciled . ’ 

“of  loki  and  his  progeny. 

“  1  There  is  another  deity,’  continued  Har,  ‘  reckoned  in  the 
number  of  the  iEsir,  whom  some  call  the  calumniator  of  the 
gods,  the  contriver  of  all  fraud  and  mischief,  and  the  disgrace 
of  gods  and  men.  His  name  is  Loki  or  Loptur.  He  is  the  son 

of  the  giant  Farbauti . Loki  is  handsome  and  well  made, 

but  of  a  very  fickle  mood,  and  most  evil  disposition.  He  sur¬ 
passes  all  beings  in  those  arts  called  Cunning  and  Perfidy. 
Many  a  time  has  he  exposed  the  gods  to  very  great  perils,  and 
often  extricated  them  again  by  his  artifices . 

“  ‘  Loki,’  continued  Har,  ‘  has  likewise  had  three  children 
by  Angurbodi,  a  giantess  of  Jotunheim.  The  first  is  the  wolf 
Fenrir;  the  second  Jormungand,  the  Midgard  serpent;  the 
third  Hela  (Death).  The  gods  were  not  long  ignorant  that 
these  monsters  continued  to  be  bred  up  in  Jotunheim,  and, 
having  had  recourse  to  divination,  became  aware  of  all  the 
•  evils  they  would  have  to  suffer  from  them  ;  their  being  sprung 
from  such  a  mother  was  a  bad  presage,  and  from  such  a  sire, 
one  still  worse.  All-father  therefore  deemed  it  advisable  to 
send  one  of  the  gods  to  bring  them  to  him.  When  they  came 
he  threw  the  serpent  into  that  deep  ocean  by  which  the  earth 
is  engirdled.  But  the  monster  has  grown  to  such  an  enor¬ 
mous  size  that,  holding  his  tail  in  his  mouth,  he  enoircles  the 
whole  earth.  Hela  he  cast  into  Niflheim,  and  gave  her  power 
over  nine  worlds  (regions),  into  which  she  distributes  those 
who  are  sent  to  her,  that  is  to  say,  all  who  die  through  sick- 


382 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


ness  or  old  age.  Here  she  possesses  a  habitation  protected  by 
exceedingly  high  walls  and  strongly  barred  gates.  Her  hall  is 
called  Elvidnir ;  Hunger  is  her  table ;  Starvation,  her  knife ; 
Delay,  her  man  ;  Slowness,  her  maid  ;  Precipice,  her  thresh¬ 
old  ;  Care,  her  bed  ;  and  Burning  Anguish  forms  the  hang¬ 
ings  of  her  apartments.  The  one  half  of  her  body  is  livid, 
the  other  half  the  color  of  human  flesh.  She  may  therefore 
easily  be  recognized ;  the  more  so,  as  she  has  a  dreadfully 
stern  and  grim  countenance. 

“  ‘  The  wolf  Fenrir  was  bred  up  among  the  gods ;  but  Tyr 
alone  had  the  daring  to  go  and  feed  him.  Nevertheless,  when 
the  gods  perceived  that  he  every  day  increased  prodigiously  in 
size,  and  that  the  oracles  warned  them  that  he  would  one  day 
become  fatal  to  them,  they  determined  to  make  a  very  strong 
iron  fetter  for  him,  which  they  called  Laeding.  Taking  this 
fetter  to  the  wolf,  they  bade  him  try  his  strength  on  it.  Fen¬ 
rir,  perceiving  that  the  enterprise  wTould  not  be  very  difficult 
for  him,  let  them  do  what  they  pleased,  and  then,  by  great 
muscular  exertion,  burst  the  chain,  and  set  himself  at  liberty. 
The  gods,  having  seen  this,  made  another  fetter,  half  as  strong 
again  as  the  former,  which  they  called  Dromi,  and  prevailed 
on  the  wolf  to  put  it  on,  assuring  him  that,  by  breaking  this, 
he  would  give  an  undeniable  proof  of  his  vigor. 

“  ‘  The  wolf  saw  well  enough  that  it  would  not  be  so  easy 
to  break  this  fetter,  but  finding  at  the  same  time  that  his 
strength  had  increased  since  he  broke  Laeding,  and  thinking 
that  he  could  never  become  famous  without  running  some  risk, 
voluntarily  submitted  to  be  chained.  When  the  gods  told  him 
that  they  had  finished  their  task,  Fenrir  shook  himself  violent¬ 
ly,  stretched  his  limbs,  rolled  on  the  ground,  and  at  last  burst 
his  chains,  which  flew  in  pieces  all  around  him.  He  thus 
freed  himself  from  Dromi,  which  gave  rise  to  the  proverb  “at 
leysa  or  Ictftingi  efia  at  drepa  or  droma  ”  (to  get  loose  out  of 
Laeding,  or  to  dash  out  of  Dromi),  when  anything  is  to  be  ac¬ 
complished  by  strong  efforts. 

“  ‘  After  this,  the  gods  despaired  of  ever  being  able  to  bind 
the  wrolf ;  wTherefore  All-father  sent  Skirnir,  the  messenger  of 
Frey,  into  the  country  of  the  Dark  Elves  (Svartalfaheim)  to 
engage  certain  dwarfs  to  make  the  fetter  called  Gleipnir.  It 
was  fashioned  out  of  six  things  ;  to  wit,  the  noise  made  by  the 
footfall  of  a  cat ;  the  beards  of  wrnnen  ;  the  roots  of  stones  ; 
the  sinews  of  bears ;  the  breath  of  fish ;  and  the  spittle  of 
birds.  Though  thou  mayest  not  have  heard  of  these  things 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  383 


before,  thou  mayest  easily  convince  thyself  that  we  have  not 
been  telling  thee  lies.  Thou  must  have  seen  that  women 
have  no  beards,  that  cats  make  no  noise  when  they  run,  and 
that  there  are  no  roots  under  stones.  Now  I  know  what  has 
been  told  thee  to  be  equally  true,  although  there  may  be  some 
things  thou  art  not  able  to  furnish  a  proof  of.’ 

“  ‘  I  believe  what  thou  hast  told  me  to  be  true,’  replied 
Gangler,  ‘  for  what  thou  hast  adduced  in  corroboration  of  thy 
statement  is  conceivable.  But  how  was  the  fetter  smithied  1  ’ 

“  ‘  This  I  can  tell  thee,’  replied  Har,  ‘  that  the  fetter  was  as 
smooth  and  soft  as  a  silken  string,  and  yet,  as  thou  wilt  pres¬ 
ently  hear,  of  very  great  strength.  When  it  was  brought  to 
the  gods  they  were  profuse  in  their  thanks  to  the  messenger 
for  the  trouble  he  had  given  himself ;  and  taking  the  wolf 
with  them  to  the  island  called  Lyngvi,  in  the  Lake  Amsvartnir, 
they  showed  him  the  cord,  and  expressed  their  wish  that  he 
would  try  to  break  it,  assuring  him  at  the  same  time  that  it 
was  somewhat  stronger  than  its  thinness  would  warrant  a  per¬ 
son  in  supposing  it  to  be.  They  took  it  themselves,  one  after 
another,  in  their  hands,  and  after  attempting  in  vain  to  break 
it,  said,  “  Thou  alone,  Fenrir,  art  able  to  accomplish  such  a 
feat.” 

“  ‘  “Methinks,”  replied  the  wolf,  “that  I  shall  acquire  no  fame 
in  breaking  such  a  slender  cord ;  but  if  any  artifice  has  been 
employed  in  making  it,  slender  though  it  seems,  it  shall  never 
come  on  my  feet.” 

“  ‘  The  gods  assured  him  that  he  would  easily  break  a  limber 
silken  cord,  since  he  had  already  burst  asunder  iron  fetters 
of  the  most  solid  construction.  “  But  if  thou  shouldst  not 
succeed  in  breaking  it,”  they  added,  “  thou  wilt  show  that 
thou  art  too  weak  to  cause  the  gods  any  fear,  and  we  will  not 
hesitate  to  set  thee  at  liberty  without  delay.” 

“  ‘  “  I  fear  me  much,”  replied  the  wolf,  “  that  if  ye  once  bind 
me  so  fast  that  I  shall  be  unable  to  free  myself  by  my  own 
efforts,  ye  will  be  in  no  haste  to  unloose  me.  Loath  am  I, 
therefore,  to  have  this  cord  wound  round  me  ;  but  in  order 
that  ye  may  not  doubt  my  courage,  I  will  consent,  provided 
one  of  you  put  his  hand  into  my  mouth  as  a  pledge  that  ye 
intend  me  no  deceit.” 

“  ‘  The  gods  wistfully  looked  at  each  other,  and  found  that 
they  had  only  the  choice  of  two  evils,  until  Tyr  stepped  for¬ 
ward  and  intrepidly  put  his  right  hand  between  the  monster’s 
jaws.  Hereupon  the  gods,  having  tied  up  the  wolf,  he  forcibly 


384 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


stretched  himself,  as  he  had  formerly  done,  and  used  all  his 
might  to  disengage  himself,  but  the  more  efforts  he  made,  the 
tighter  became  the  cord,  until  all  the  gods,  except  Tyr,  who 
lost  his  hand,  burst  into  laughter  at  the  sight. 

“  ‘  When  the  gods  saw  that  the  wolf  was  effectually  bound, 
they  took  the  chain  called  Gelgja,  which  was  fixed  to  the  fetter, 
and  drew  it  through  the  middle  of  a  large  rock  named  Gjbll, 
which  they  sank  very  deep  into  the  earth ;  afterwards,  to  make 
it  still  more  secure,  they  fastened  the  end  of  the  cord  to  a 
massive  stone  called  Thviti,  which  they  sank  still  deeper. 
The  wolf  made  in  vain  the  most  violent  efforts  to  break  loose, 
and,  opening  his  tremendous  jaws,  endeavored  to  bite  them. 
The  gods,  seeing  this,  thrust  a  sword  into  his  mouth,  which 
pierced  his  under  jaw  up  to  the  hilt,  so  that  the  point  touched 
the  palate.  He  then  began  to  howl  horribly,  and  since  that 
time  the  foam  flows  continually  from  his  mouth  in  such 
abundance  that  it  forms  the  river  called  Yon.  There  will  he 
remain  until  Ragnarok.’  ” 

There  are  also  goddesses  in  the  YTalhalla,  of  whom  the 
Edda  mentions  Erigga,  Saga,  and  many  others. 

§  5.  Resemblance  of  the  Scandinavian  Mythology  to  that  of 

Zoroaster . 

These  are  the  main  points  of  the  Scandinavian  mythol¬ 
ogy,  the  resemblance  of  which  to  that  of  Zoroaster  has 
been  often  remarked.  Each  is  a.  dualism,  having  its 
good  and  evil  gods,  its  worlds  of  light  and  darkness,  in 
opposition  to  each  other.  Each  has  behind  this  dualism 
a  dim  presence,  a  vague  monotheism,  a  supreme  God, 
infinite  and  eternal.  In  each  the  evil  powers  are  for 
the  present  conquered  and  bound  in  some  subterranean 
prisons,  but  are  hereafter  to  break  out,  to  battle  with 
the  gods  and  overcome  them,  but  to  he  destroyed  them¬ 
selves  at  the  same  time.  Each  system  speaks  of  a  great 
conflagration,  in  which  all  things  will  be  destroyed  ;  to  be 
followed  by  the  creation  of  a  new  earth,  more  beautiful 
than  the  other,  to  be  the  abode  of  peace  and  joy.  The 
duty  of  man  in  each  system  is  war,  though  this  war  in 
the  Avesta  is  viewed  rather  as  moral  conflict,  while  in  the 
Edda  it  is  taken  more  grossly  for  physical  struggle.  The 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  KELIGION.  3S5 


tone  of  the  theology  of  Zoroaster  is  throughout  higher 
and  more  moral  than  that  of  the  Scandinavians.  Its 
doctrine  of  creation  is  not  a  mere  development  by  a  dark, 
unintelligent  process,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  it  a  Him 
doo  or  Gnostic  system  of  emanation.  'It  is  neither  pure 
materialism  on  the  one  hand  nor  pantheism  on  the  other  ; 
hut  a  true  doctrine  of  creation,  for  an  intelligent  and 
moral  purpose,  by  the  conscious  and  free  act  of  the  Cre¬ 
ator.  But  in  many  of  the  details,  again,  we  find  a  sin¬ 
gular  correspondence  between  these  two  systems.  Odin 
corresponds  to  Ormazd,  Loki  to  Ahriman,  the  ZEsir  to  the 
Amscliaspands,  the  giants  of  Jotunheim  to  the  Dae¬ 
vas.  So  too  the  ox  (Adudab)  is  the  ecpiivalent  of  the 
giant  Ymir,  and  the  creation  of  the  man  and  woman, 
Mesliia  and  Meshiane,  is  correlated  to  Ask  and  Embla. 
Baldur  resembles  the  Bedeemer  Sosiosli.  The  bridge, 
Bifrost,  which  goes  up  to  heaven,  is  the  bridge  Chinevat, 
which  goes  from  the  top  of  Albordj  to  heaven.  The  dog 
Sirius  (Sura),  the  watchman  who  keeps  guard  over  the 
abyss,  seems  also  to  correspond  to  Surtur,  the  watchman 
of  the  luminous  world  at  the  South.  The  earth,  in  the 
Avesta,  is  called  Hethra,  and  by  the  ancient  Germans  and 
Scandinavians,  Hertlia,  —  the  name  given  by  Tacitus  to 
this  goddess,  signifying  the  earth,  in  all  the  Teutonic  lan¬ 
guages.  In  like  manner,  the  German  name  for  heaven, 
Himmel,  is  derived  from  the  Sanskrit  word  “  Himmala,” 
the  name  of  the  Himmalah  Mountains  in  Central  Asia, 
believed  by  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Asia  to  be  the  resi¬ 
dence  of  their  gods.* 

§  6.  Scandinavian  W or  ship. 

The  religious  ceremonies  of  the  Scandinavians  were 
simple.  Their  worship,  like  that  of  the  followers  of 
Zoroaster,  was  at  first  held  in  the  open  air ;  but  in  later 
times  they  erected  temples,  some  of  which  were  quite 

*  Physical  circumstances  produced  alterations  in  the  mythologies, 
whose  origin  was  the  same.  Thus,  Loki,  the  god  of  fire,  belongs  to  the 
yEsir,  because  fire  is  hostile  to  frost,  hut  represents  the  treacherous  and 
evil  subterranean  fires,  which  in  Iceland  destroyed  with  lava,  sand,  and! 
boiling  water  more  than  was  injured  by  cold. 

17 


T 


336 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


splendid.  There  were  three  great  festivals  in  the  year. 
The  first  was  at  the  winter  solstice,  and  on  the  longest 
night  of  the  year,  which  was  called  the  Mother  Night, 
as  that  which  produced  the  rest.  This  great  feast  was 
called  Yul,  whence  comes  the  English  Yule,  the  old  name 
for  Christmas,  which  festival  took  its  place  when  the 
Scandinavians  became  Christians.  Their  festival  was  in 
honor  of  the  sun,  and  was  held  with  sacrifices,  feasting, 
and  great  mirth.  The  second  festival  was  in  spring,  in 
honor  of  the  earth,  to  supplicate  fruitful  crops.  The 
third  was  also  in  the  spring,  in  honor  of  Odin.  The  sacri¬ 
fices  were  of  fruits,  afterward  animals,  and  occasionally, 
in  later  times,  human  beings.  The  people  believed  in 
divine  interposition,  and  also  in  a  fixed  destiny,  but  es¬ 
pecially  in  themselves,  in  their  own  force  and  courage. 
Some  of  them  laughed  at  the  gods,  some  challenged  them 
to  fight  with  them,  and  professed  to  believe  in  nothing 
but  their  own  might  and  main.  One  warrior  calls 
for  Odin,  as  a  foeman  alone  worthy  of  his  steel,  and  it 
was  considered  lawful  to  fight  the  gods.  The  quicken- 
tree,  or  mountain-ash,  was  believed  to  possess  great  vir¬ 
tues,  on  account  of  the  aid  it  afforded  to  Thor  on  one 
occasion. 

Beside  the  priests,  the  Northern  nations  had  their 
soothsayers.  They  also  believed  that  by  the  power  of 
runes  the  dead  could  be  made  to  speak.  These  runes 
were  called  galder,  and  another  kind  of  magic,  mostly 
practised  by  women,  was  called  seid.  It  was  thought 
that  these  wise  women  possessed  the  power  of  raising 
and  allaying  storms,  and  of  hardening  the  body  so  that 
the  sword  could  not  cut  it.  Some  charms  could  give 
preternatural  strength,  others  the  power  of  crossing  the 
sea  without  a  ship,  of  creating  and  destroying  love,  of  as¬ 
suming  different  forms,  of  becoming  invisible,  of  giving 
the  evil  eye.  Garments  could  be  charmed  to  protect  or 
to  destroy  the  wearer.  A  horse’s  head,  set  on  a  stake, 
with  certain  imprecations,  produced  fearful  mischief  to  a 
foe.* 

Yery  few  remains  of  temples  have  been  found  in  the 

*  Northern  Mythology,  by  Benjamin  Thorpe. 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  387 


North.  But  (as  Laing  remarks  in  his  “  Sea-Kings  of 
Norway  ”)  the  most  permanent  remains  of  the  religion  of 
Odin  are  found  in  the  usages  and  languages  of  the  de¬ 
scendants  of  those  who  worshipped  him.  These  descend¬ 
ants  all  retain,  in  the  names  of  Wednesday,  Thursday, 
and  Friday,  the  recollections  of  the  chief  gods  of  this 
mythology.  Mara  (the  nightmare)  still  torments  the 
sleep  of  the  English-speaking  people  ;  and  the  Evil  One, 
Nokke  (so  says  Laing),  is  the  ancestor  of  Old  Nick. 

Every  ninth  year  solemn  sacrifices  were  held  in  the 
great  temple  at  Upsal  in  Sweden.  The  king  and  all  citi¬ 
zens  of  importance  must  appear  in  person  and  bring  of¬ 
ferings.  Crowds  came  together  on  these  occasions,  and 
no  one  was  excluded,  except  for  some  base  or  cowardly 
action.  Nine  human  beings  were  sacrificed,  usually  cap¬ 
tives  or  slaves,  but  in  times  of  great  calamity  even  a 
king  was  made  a  victim.  Earl  Hakon,  of  Norway,  of¬ 
fered  his  son  in  sacrifice  to  obtain  a  victory  over  some 
pirates.  The  bodies  were  buried  in  groves,  which  thence 
were  regarded  as  very  sacred.  One,  called  Odin’s  grove, 
near  the  temple  of  Upsal,  was  sacred  in  every  twig  and 
leaf. 

§  7.  Social  Character ,  Maritime  Discoveries ,  and  Political 
Institutions  of  the  Scandinavians. 

Of  the  manners,  customs,  and  habits  of  the  Scandi¬ 
navians,  we  cannot  speak  at  length.  Society  among  them 
was  divided  into  two  classes,  —  the  landholder  or  l)onds- 
men,  and  the  thralls  or  slaves.  The  duty  of  the  last  was 
to  perform  domestic  service  and  till  the  ground,  and  they 
consisted  of  prisoners  taken  in  war  and  their  children. 
The  business  of  the  landholder  or  bondsman  was  war, 
and  his  chief  virtue  courage.  His  maxim  was,  to  con¬ 
quer  a  single  opponent,  to  attack  two,  not  to  yield  to 
three,  and  only  to  give  way  to  four.  To  die  in  battle  was 
their  high  ambition  ;  then  they  believed  that  they  should 
pass  to  the  halls  of  Odin.  King  Ragnar  died  singing  the 
pleasure  of  receiving  death  in  battle,  saying,  “  The  hours 
of  my  life  have  passed  away ;  I  shall  die  laughing-”  Saxo, 


388 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


describing  a  duel,  said  tliat  one  of  the  champions  fell, 
laughed,  and  died.  Eather  than  die  in  their  bed,  some, 
when  sick,  leaped  from  a  rock  into  the  sea.  Others,  when 
dying,  would  be  carried  into  a  field  of  battle.  Others 
induced  their  friends  to  kill  them.  The  Icelandic  Sagas 
are  filled  with  stories  of  single  combats,  or  holm-gangs. 
When  not  fighting  they  were  fond  of  feasting ;  and  the 
man  who  could  drink  the  most  beer  Avas  counted  the  best. 
The  custom  of  drinking  toasts  came  from  the  North.  As 
the  English  give  the  Queen,  and  we  the  President,  as  the 
first  health  on  public  occasions,  so  they  begin  with  a 
cup,  first  to  Odin,  and  afterward  to  other  deities,  and 
then  to  the  memory  of  the  dead,  in  what  was  called 
grave-beer.  Their  institutions  were  patriarchal  ;  the 
head  of.  the  family  was  the  chief  of  the  tribe  and  also 
its  priest.  But  all  the  freemen  in  a  neighborhood  met  in 
the  Thing,  where  they  decided  disputes,  laid  down  social 
regulations,  and  determined  on  public  measures.  The 
Thing  was,  therefore,  legislature,  court  of  justice,  and  ex¬ 
ecutive  council  in  one  ;  and  once  a  year,  in  some  central 
place,  there  was  held  a  similar  meeting  to  settle  the  affairs 
of  the  whole  country,  called  the  Land-Tliing  or  All-Thing. 
At  this  the  king  was  chosen  for  the  whole  community, 
who  sometimes  appointed  subordinate  officers  called  Yarls, 
or  earls,  to  preside  over  large  districts.  Eespect  for 
women  was  a  marked  trait  among  the  Scandinavians,  as 
Tacitus  has  noticed  of  their  congeners,  the  Germans.  They 
were  admired  for  their  modesty,  sense,  and  force  of  char¬ 
acter,  rather  than  for  the  fascinations  which  the  nations 
of  the  South  prefer.  When  Thor  described  his  battle 
with  the  sorceress,  the  answer  was,  “  Shame,  Thor !  to 
strike  a  woman  !  ”  The  wife  was  expected  to  be  indus¬ 
trious  and  domestic.  She  carried  the  keys  of  the  house  ; 
and  the  Sagas  frequently  mention  wives  who  divorced 
their  husbands  for  some  offence,  and  took  back  their 
dowry.  The  Skalds,  or  Bards,  had  a  high  place  and  great 
distinction  among  this  people.  Their  songs  constituted 
the  literature  and  history  of  the  Scandinavians,  and  the 
people  listened,  not  as  to  the  inspiration  of  an  individual 
mind,  but  to  the  pulsation  of  its  own  past  life.  Their 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  389 


praises  were  desired,  their  satire  feared,  by  the  greatest 
heroes  and  kings.  Their  style  was  figurative,  sometimes 
bombastic,  often  obscure. 

Of  the  maritime  expeditions  of  the  Northmen  we  have 
already  spoken.  For  many  centuries  they  were  the  terror 
of  Europe,  North  and  South.  The  sea-kings  of  Norway 
appeared  before  Constantinople  in  866,  and  afterward  a 
body-guard  of  the  emperors  of  the  East  was  composed  of 
these  pirates,  who  were  called  the  Varangians.  Even 
before  the  death  of  Charlemagne  their  depredations 
brought  tears  to  his  eyes ;  and  after  his  death  they  pil¬ 
laged  and  burnt  the  principal  cities  of  France,  and  even 
his  own  palace  at  Aix-la-Chapelle.  They  carried  their 
arms  into  Spain,  Italy,  and  Greece.  In  844  a  band  of 
these  sea-rovers  sailed  up  the  Guadalquiver  and  attacked 
Seville,  then  in  possession  of  the  Moors,  and  took  it,  and 
afterward  fought  a  battle  with  the  troops  of  Abderah- 
man  II.  The  followers  of  Mohammed  and  the  worship¬ 
pers  of  Odin,  the  turbaned  Moors  and  the  fair-haired 
Norwegians,  here  met,  each  far  from  his  original  home, 
each  having  pursued  a  line  of  conquest,  which  thus  came 
in  contact  at  their  furthest  extremes. 

The  Northmen  in  Italy  sold  their  swords  to  different 
princes,  and  under  Count  Rainalf  built  the  city  of  Aversa 
in  1029.*  In  Sicily  the  Northern  knights  defeated  the 
Saracens,  and  enabled  the  Greek  Emperor  to  reconquer  the 
island.  Afterward  they  established  themselves  in  South¬ 
ern  Italy,  and  took  possession  of  Apulia.  A  league  formed 
against  them  by  the  Greek  and  German  Emperors  and  the 
Pope  ended  in  the  utter  defeat  of  the  Papal  and  German 
army  by  three  thousand  Normans,  and  they  afterward  re¬ 
ceived  and  held  Apulia  as  a  Papal  fief.  In  1060  Robert 
Guiscard  became  Duke  of  Apulia  and  Calabria,  and  at 
last  of  the  whole  kingdom  of  Naples.  Sicily  was  con¬ 
quered  by  his  brother,  Count  Roger,  who,  with  a  few 
Northmen,  routed  vast  numbers  of  the  Saracens  and  com¬ 
pleted  the  subjection  of  the  island,  after  thirty  years  of 
war.  Meantime  his  brother  Robert  crossed  the  Adriatic 
and  besieged  and  took  Durazzo,  after  a  fierce  battle,  in 

*  Gibbon,  Chap.  LVI. 


390 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


which  the  Scandinavian  soldiers  of  the  Greek  Emperor 
fought  with  the  Normans  descended  from  the  same  Scan¬ 
dinavian  ancestors. 

§  8.  Relation  of  this  System  to  Christianity. 

The  first  German  nation  converted  to  Christianity  was 
that  of  the  Goths,  whose  teacher  was  Ulphilas,  born  318, 
consecrated  a  bishop  in  348.  Having  made  many  con¬ 
verts  to  Christianity  among  his  people,  a  persecution  arose 
against  them  from  the  pagan  Goths  ;  and  in  355,  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  this  persecution,  he  sought  and  obtained  leave  to 
settle  his  converts  in  Msesia.  He  preached  with  fervor, 
studied  the  Scripture  in  Greek  and  Latin,  and  made  the 
first  translation  of  the  Bible  into  any  German  language. 
Fragments  of  his  Gothic  version  are  preserved  at  Upsal. 
This  copy,  called  the  “  Codex  Argenteus,”  was  captured  by 
the  Swedes  at  Prague  during  the  Thirty  Years’  War.  This 
manuscript  is  of  the  sixth  century,  and,  together  with 
some  palimpsests,  is  the  only  source  of  our  knowledge  of 
this  ancient  version.* 

Ulphilas  was  an  Arian,  and  died  confessing  his  faith  in 
that  form  of  Unitarianism.  Neander  says  it  is  to  the  cred¬ 
it  of  the  orthodox  historians  that  they  do  not  on  that 
account  abate  anything  of  their  praise  of  Ulphilas  for  his 
great  labors  as  a  missionary,  confessor,  and  doctor.  His 
translation  was,  for  a  long  time,  used  all  over  Europe  by 
the  various  tribes  of  German  descent. 

Ulphilas,  therefore,  led  the  way  in  that  work  which  re¬ 
sulted  in  one  of  the  greatest  events  of  modern  history  ; 
namely,  the  conversion  of  the  German  race  to  Christian¬ 
ity.  It  was  by  various  families  of  this  Teutonic  stem  — 
Goths,  Vandals,  Saxons,  Lombards,  Burgundians,  Franks 
—  that  the  Boman  Empire  was  overthrown.  If  they  had 
not  been  converted  to  Christianity  before  and  during 
these  conquests,  what  would  have  been  the  fate  of  Euro¬ 
pean  civilization  ?  The  only  bond  uniting  the  modern 
and  ancient  world  was  the  Christian  faith,  and  this  faith 

*  Smith’s  Dictionary  of  the  Bible.  Neander,  Church  History,  Yol.  II. 
Appendix. 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  391 


was  so  adapted  to  tlie  German  character  that  it  was 
everywhere  accepted  by  them.*  The  conversion  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons  by  Augustin  (a.  d.  597),  of  the  Germans 
by  Boniface  (a.  d.  718-755),  of  the  Saxons  (a.  d.  803), 
and  the  universal  downfall  of  German  heathenism,  was 
a  condition  sine  qua  non  of  that  union  of  Latin  and 
Greek  culture  with  the  German  vitality,  which  was  at  the 
root  of  modern  European  civilization.  Previous  to  this 
the  Visigoths  were  converted,  as  we  have  seen ;  then  the 
Ostrogoths ;  then  the  Vandals  and  Gepidse,  —  all  in  the 
fourth  century.  The  Franks  became  Christians  in  the 
fifth  century,  the  Alemanni  and  Lombards  in  the  sixth. 
All  of  these  tribes  were  converted  by  Arian  missionaries, 
except  the  Franks.  But  the  records  of  these  missions  have 
perished,  for  the  historians  were  Catholics,  “  who,”  says 
Milman,*  “  perhaps  destroyed,  or  disdained  to  preserve, 
the  fame  of  Arian  conquests  to  a  common  Christianity.” 
“  It  was  a  surprising  spectacle,”  says  he,  “  to  behold  the 
Teutonic  nations  melting  gradually  into  the  general  mass 
of  Christian  worshippers.  In  every  other  respect  they 
were  still  distinct  races.  The  conquering  Ostrogoth  or 
Visigoth,  the  Vandal,  the  Burgundian,  the  Frank,  stood 
apart  from  the  subjugated  Roman  population,  as  an 
armed  or  territorial  aristocracy.  They  maintain,  in  great 
part  at  least,  their  laws,  their  language,  their  habits,  their 
character ;  in  religion  alone  they  are  blended  into  one 
society,  constitute  one  church,  worship  at  the  same  altar, 
and  render  allegiance  to  the  same  hierarchy.  This  is  the 
single  bond  of  their  common  humanity.” 

The  German  races  also  established  everywhere  the 
feudal  system,  that  curious  institution,  which  lias  been 
the  subject  of  so  much  discussion,  and  has  perplexed  the 
readers  of  history  by  its  incongruities.  These  perplexi¬ 
ties,  however,  may  perhaps  be  relieved  if  we  see  that  the 
essential  character  of  this  institution  was  this,  that  it 
was  an  army  permanently  quartered  on  a  subject  people. 

*  See,  for  the  conversion  of  the  German  races,  Gibbon  ;  Guizot,  His¬ 
tory  of  Civilization  ;  Merivale,  Conversion  of  the  German  Nations  ;  Mil- 
man,  Latin  Christianity  ;  Neander,  History  of  the  Christian  Church  ; 
Hegel ;  Lecky,  History  of  European  Morals. 

t  Latin  Christianity,  Book  III.  Chap.  II. 


392 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


This  definition  contains  the  explanation  of  the  whole 
system.  The  Germans  had  overrun  and  conquered  the 
Koman  Empire.  They  intended  to  possess  and  retain  it. 
But  being  much  fewer  in  numbers  than  the  conquered 
people,  how  could  they  do  this  ?  Suppose  that  when  the 
Confederate  States  had  been  conquered  by  the  Union 
Army  it  had  been  determined  to  hold  them  permanent¬ 
ly  as  a  conquered  territory.  It  could  be  done  thus. 
First,  the  original  inhabitants  must  be  disarmed  and  put 
under  stringent  laws,  like  that  of  the  curfew,  etc.  Then 
to  every  private  soldier  in  the  Union  Army  a  farm,  say  of 
fifty  acres,  would  be  assigned,  on  condition  that  whenever 
summoned  by  the  captain  of  his  company  he  would  pre¬ 
sent  himself  armed  to  do  military  duty.  In  like  manner 
the  captain  would  receive,  say  a  hundred  acres,  on  condi¬ 
tion  of  appearing  with  his  company  when  summoned  by 
his  colonel.  Then  the  colonel  would  receive  five  hun¬ 
dred  acres,  on  condition  of  appearing  with  his  regiment 
when  summoned  by  the  general.  The  general  ( clux , 
duke)  must  appear  with  his  brigade  when  summoned 
by  the  commander-in-chief  ( impercitor ,  emperor),  and  he 
would  hold  perhaps  a  thousand  acres  on  this  condition. 
All  this  land,  thus  held  on  condition  of  military  service, 
would  be  held  in  fee,  and  would  exemplify  the  actual 
foundation  of  the  whole  feudal  system,  which  was  simply 
an  arrangement  by  which  a  conquering  army  could  hold 
down  the  conquered  nation. 

Of  course,  such  a  system  as  this  was  one  of  tyranny 
and  cruelty,  and  during  several  centuries  it  was  tempered 
and  softened  only  by  the  mediatorial  influence  of  the 
Christian  Church.  This  was  the  only  power  strong  enough 
to  shield  the  oppressed  and  to  hold  back  the  arm  of  the 
tyrant.  Feudalism  served,  no  doubt,  some  useful  pur¬ 
poses.  It  was  a  method  of  riveting  together,  with  iron 
nails,  the  conquerors  and  conquered,  until  they  could 
come  into  a  union  of  a  better  kind. 

It  was  about  the  year  1000  that  the  people  of  the 
North  were  converted  to  Christianity.  This  process  of 
conversion  was  a  long  time  going  on,  and  there  were  sev¬ 
eral  relapses  into  paganism  ;  so  that  no  precise  time  can 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  393 


be  fixed  for  the  conversion  of  a  single  nation,  much  less 
for  that  of  the  different  branches  of  the  Scandinavian 
stock  separately  situated  in  Sweden  and  Denmark,  Ice¬ 
land  and  Greenland,  and  colonized  in  England  and  Nor¬ 
mandy.  A  mission  was  established  in  Denmark,  A.  D.  822, 
and  the  king  was  baptized ;  but  the  overthrow  of  this 
Christian  king  restricted  the  labors  of  the  missionary. 
An  attempt  was  made  in  Sweden  in  829,  and  the  mission¬ 
ary,  Anscliar,  remained  there  a  year  and  a  half ;  but  the 
mission  there  established  was  soon  overthrown.  Uniting 
wisdom  with  his  ardor,  Anscliar  established  at  Hamburg 
schools  where  he  educated  Danish  and  Swedish  boys  to 
preach  Christianity  in  their  own  language  to  their  coun¬ 
trymen.  But  the  Normans  laid  waste  this  city,  and  the 
Christian  schools  and  churches  were  destroyed.  About 
850  a  new  attempt  was  made  in  Sweden,  and  there  the 
subject  was  laid  by  the  king  before  his  council  or  parlia¬ 
ment,  consisting  of  two  assemblies,  and  they  decided  to 
allow  Christianity  to  be  preached  and  practised,  apparent¬ 
ly  on  the  ground  that  this  new  god,  Christ,  might  help 
them  in  their  dangers  at  sea,  when  the  other  gods  could 
not.  And  thus,  according  to  the  independent  character  of 
this  people,  Christianity  was  neither  allowed  to  be  im¬ 
posed  upon  them  by  their  king  against  their  will,  nor 
excluded  from  the  use  of  those  who  chose  to  adopt  it. 
It  took  its  chance  with  the  old  systems,  and  many  of  the 
Danes  and  Normans  believed  in  worshipping  both  Odin 
and  Christ  at  the  same  time.  King  Harold  in  Denmark, 
during  the  last  half  of  the  tenth  century,  favored  the  spread 
of  Christianity,  and  was  himself  baptized  with  his  wife 
and  son,  believing  at  first  that  the  Christian  God  was 
more  powerful  than  the  heathen  gods,  but  finally  coming 
to  the  conclusion  that  these  last  were  only  evil  spirits.  On 
the  other  hand,  some  of  the  Danes  believed  that  Christ 
wras  a  god,  and  to  be  worshipped  ;  but  that  he  was  a  less 
powerful  god  than  Odin  or  Thor.  The  son  of  King  Harold, 
in  990,  returned  to  paganism  and  drove  out  the  Christian 
priests ;  but  his  son,  Canute  the  Great,  who  began  to 
reign  in  1014,  was  converted  to  Christianity  in  England, 
and  became  its  zealous  friend.  But  these  fierce  warriors 


394 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


made  rather  poor  Christians.  Adam  of  Bremen  says : 
“  They  so  abominate  tears  and  lamentations,  and  all  other 
signs  of  penitence  which  we  think  so  salubrious,  that  they 
will  neither  weep  for  their  own  sins  nor  at  the  death  of 
their  best  friends.”  Thus,  in  these  Northern  regions, 
Christianity  grew  through  one  or  two  centuries,  not  like 
the  mustard-seed,  but  like  the  leaven,  infusing  itself 
more  and  more  into  their  national  life.  According  to  the 
testimony  of  an  eye-witness,  Adam  of  Bremen,  the  Swedes 
were  very  susceptible  to  religious  impressions.  “  They 
receive  the  preachers  of  the  truth  with  great  kindness,” 
says  he,  “  if  they  are  modest,  wise,  and  able ;  and  our 
bishops  are  even  allowed  to  preach  in  their  great  public 
assemblies.”  In  Norway,  Prince  Hacon,  in  the  middle  of 
the  tenth  century,  attempted  to  establish  Christianity, 
which  he  had  learned  in  England.  He  proposed  to  the 
great  national  assembly  that  the  whole  nation  should 
renounce  idolatry,  worship  God  and  Christ,  keep  Sundays 
as  festivals,  and  Fridays  as  fasts.  Great  opposition  was 
made,  and  there  was  danger  of  universal  insurrection,  so 
that  the  king  had  to  yield,  and  even  himself  drink  a 
toast  to  Odin  and  eat  horse-flesh,  which  was  a  heathen 
practice.  Subsequent  kings  of  Norway  introduced  Chris¬ 
tianity  again ;  but  the  people,  though  willing  to  be  bap¬ 
tized,  frequently  continued  Pagans,  and  only  by  degrees 
renounced,  with  their  old  worship,  their  habits  of  piracy. 
The  Icelanders  embraced  Christianity  at  their  All-Thing 
in  the  year  1000,  but  with  the  condition  that  they  might 
also  continue  their  old  worship,  and  be  permitted  the  eat¬ 
ing  of  horse-flesh  and  exposition  of  infants.  When  the 
All-Thing  broke  up,  the  assembled  multitudes  went  to  the 
liot-batlis  to  be  baptized,  preferring  for  this  rite  hot  water 
to  cold.  The  Scandinavians  seem  at  this  period  to  have 
lost  their  faith  in  their  old  religion,  and  to  have  been  in  a 
transition  state.  One  warrior  says  that  he  relies  more 
on  his  own  strength  and  arms  than  upon  Thor.  Another 
says,  “  I  would  have  thee  know  that  I  believe  neither  in 
idols  nor  spirits,  but  only  in  my  own  force  and  courage.”  A 
warrior  told  King  Olaff  in  Norway,  “  I  am  neither  Christian 
nor  Pagan.  My  companions  and  I  have  no  other  religion 


THE  TEUTONIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN  RELIGION.  395 


than  confidence  in  our  own  strength  and  good  success.” 
Evidently  Christianity  for  a  long  time  sat  very  lightly  on 
these  nations.  They  were  willing  to  be  baptized  and 
accept  some  of  the  outward  ceremonies  and  festivals  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  which  were  considerately  made  to 
resemble  their  old  ones. 

Nevertheless  Christianity  met  many  of  the  wants  of 
this  noble  race  of  men ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  their  in¬ 
stincts  as  a  race  were  as  well  adapted  to  promote  an  equal 
development  of  every  side  of  Christian  life.  The  South¬ 
ern  races  of  Europe  received  Christianity  as  a  religion  of 
order ;  the  Northern  races,  as  a  religion  of  freedom.  In 
the  South  of  Europe  the  Catholic  Church,  by  its  ingenious 
organization  and  its  complex  arrangements,  introduced  into 
life  discipline  and  culture.  In  the  North  of  Europe  Prot¬ 
estant  Christianity,  by  its  appeals  to  the  individual  soul, 
awakens  conscience  and  stimulates  to  individual  and  na¬ 
tional  progress.  The  nations  of  Southern  Europe  accepted 
Christianity  mainly  as  a  religion  of  sentiment  and  feeling ; 
the  nations  of  Northern  Europe,  as  a  religion  of  truth  and 
principle.  God  adapted  Christianity  to  the  needs  of  these 
Northern  races  ;  but  he  also  adapted  these  races,  with 
their  original  instincts  and  their  primitive  religion,  to  the 
needs  of  Christianity.  Without  them,  we  do  not  see  how 
there  could  be  such  a  thing  in  Europe  to-day  as  Protes¬ 
tantism.  It  was  no  accident  which  made  the  founder  of 
the  Reformation  a  Saxon  monk,  and  the  cradle  of  the  Ref¬ 
ormation  Germany.  It  was  no  accident  which  brought 
the  great  Gustavus  Adolphus  from  the  northern  peninsula, 
at  the  head  of  his  Swedish  Protestants,  to  turn  the  tide 
of  war  in  favor  of  Protestantism  and  to  die  on  the  field  of 
Lutzen,  fighting  for  freedom  of  spirit.  It  is  no  accident 
which  makes  the  Scandinavian  races  to-day,  in  Sweden 
and  Norway,  in  Denmark  and  North  Germany  and  Hol¬ 
land,  in  England  and  the  United  States,  almost  the  only 
Protestant  nations  of  the  world.  The  old  instincts  still 
run  in  the  blood,  and  cause  these  races  to  ask  of  their 
religion,  not  so  much  the  luxury  of  emotion  or  the  satis¬ 
faction  of  repose,  in  having  all  opinions  settled  for  them 
and  all  actions  prescribed,  as,  much  rather,  light,  free- 


39G 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


dom,  and  progress.  To  them  to-day,  as  -to  their  ances 
tors, 

“  Is  life  a  simple  art 
Of  duties  to  be  done, 

A  game  where  each  man  takes  his  part, 

A  race  where  all  must  run  ; 

A  battle  whose  great  scheme  and  scope 
They  little  care  to  know ; 

Content,  as  men  at  arms,  to  cope 
Each  with  his  fronting  foe.” 


/ 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


397 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


§  1 .  Palestine,  and  the  Semitic  Races.  §  2.  Abraham  ;  or,  Judaism  as 
the  family  Worship  of  a  Supreme  Being.  §  3.  Moses  ;  or,  Judaism  as 
the  national  Worship  of  a  just  and  holy  King.  §  4.  David  ;  or,  Juda¬ 
ism  as  the  personal  Worship  of  a  Father  and  Friend.  §  5.  Solomon  ; 
or,  the  Religious  Relapse.  §  6.  The  Prophets  ;  or,  Judaism  as  the  Hope 
of  a  spiritual  and  universal  Kingdom  of  God.  §  7.  Judaism  as  a  Prep¬ 
aration  for  Christianity. 


1.  Palestine ,  and  the  Semitic  Races. 


ALESTINE  is  a  word  equivalent  to  Philistia,  or  the 


_L  land  of  the  Philistines.  A  similar  name  for  the 
coast  region  of  Syria  has  been  found  on  a  monument  in 
Nineveh,*  and  at  Karnak  in  Egypt,  f  Josephus  and 
Philo  use  the  term  “  Palestine,”  as  applying  to  the  Philis¬ 
tines  ;  and  the  accurate  learning  of  Milton  appears  in  his 
using  it  in  the  same  sense.  J  “  The  land  of  Canaan,”  “  The 
land  of  Israel,”  and  “Judaea  ”  were  the  names  afterward 
given  to  the  territory  of  the  children  of  Israel.  It  is  a 
small  country,  like  others  as  famous ;  for  it  is  only  about 
one  hundred  and  forty  English  miles  in  length,  and  forty 
in  width.  It  resembles  Greece  and  Switzerland,  not  only 
in  its  small  dimensions,  but  by  being  composed  of  valleys, 
separated  by  chains  of  mountains  and  by  ranges  of  hills. 
It  was  isolated  by  the  great  sea  of  sand  on  the  east,  and 
the  Mediterranean  on  the  west.  Sharply  defined  on  the 
east,  west,  and  south,  it  stretches  indefinitely  into  Syria 
on  the  north.  It  is  a  hilly,  high-lying  region,  having  all 
the  characters  of  Greece  except  proximity  to  the  sea,  and 
all  those  of  Switzerland  except  the  height  of  the  moun¬ 
tains.  Its  valleys  were  well  watered  and  fertile.  They 

*  Palaztu,  on  the  Western  Sea.  Rawlinson’s  Herodotus,  Yol.  I.,  p.  487. 

+  The  word  has  been  deciphered  “  Pulusater.”  Smith’s  Dictionary  of 
the  Bible,  Palestine. 


Ibid. 


398 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


mostly  ran  north  and  south ;  none  opened  a  way  across 
Judaea  to  the  Mediterranean.  This  geographical  fact  as¬ 
sisted  in  the  isolation  of  the  country.  Two  great  routes 
of  travel  passed  by  its  borders  without  entering  its  hills. 
On  the  west  the  plains  of  Philistia  were  the  highway  of 
the  Assyrian  and  Egyptian  armies.  On  the  north  the 
valley  of  the  Orontes,  separated  by  the  chain  of  Lebanon 
from  Palestine,  allowed  the  people  of  Asia  a  free  pas¬ 
sage  to  the  sea.  So,  though  surrounded  by  five  great  na¬ 
tions,  all  idolatrous,  —  the  Babylonians,  Medes,  Assyrians, 
Phoenicians,  and  Egyptians,  —  the  people  of  Judaea  were 
enabled  to  develop  their  own  character  and  institutions 
without  much  interference  from  without.  Inaccessible 
from  the  sea,  and  surrounded,  like  the  Swiss,  by  the 
natural  fortifications  of  their  hills,  like  the  Swiss  they 
were  also  protected  by  their  poverty  from  spoilers.  But 
being  at  the  point  of  contact  of  three  continents,  they 
had  (like  the  Mahommedans  afterwards)  great  facilities 
for  communicating  their  religious  ideas  to  other  nations. 

Palestine  is  so  small  a  country  that  from  many  points 
the  whole  of  it  may  be  overlooked*  Toward  the  east, 
from  all  points,  may  be  seen  the  high  plateau  of  Moab 
and  the  mountains  of  Gilead.  Snow-capped  Hermon  is 
always  visible  on  the  north.  In  the  heart  of  the  land 
rises  the  beautiful  mountain  Tabor,  clothed  with  vegeta¬ 
tion  to  its  summit.  It  is  almost  a  perfect  cone,  and  com¬ 
mands  the  most  interesting  view  in  all  directions.  From 
its  top,  to  which  you  ascend  from  Nazareth  by  a  path 
which  Jesus  may  have  trod,  you  see  to  the  northeast  the 
lofty  chain  of  Hermon  (Jebel  es  Sheikh  =  the  Captain) 
rising  into  the  blue  sky  to  the  height  of  ten  thousand 
feet,  covered  with  eternal  snow.  West  of  this  appears 
the  chain  of  Lebanon.  At  the  foot  of  Tabor  the  plain 
of  Esdraelon  extends  northerly,  dotted  with  hills,  and 
animated  with  the  camps  of  the  Arabs. *f*  The  Lake  of 
Galilee  gleams,  a  silver  line,  on  the  east,  with  Bashan 
and  the  mountains  of  Gilead  in  the  distance,  and  farther 

*  Palestine,  and  the  Sinaitic  Peninsula.  By  Carl  Ritter.  Translated 
by  William  L.  Gage.  New  York.  1866. 

t  Ritter’s  Palestine,  Yol.  II.  p.  315. 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


399 


to  the  southeast  the  great  plateau  of  Moab  rises  like  a 
mountain  wall  beyond  the  Jordan.  The  valley  of  the 
Jordan  itself,  sunk  far  below  the  level  of  the  Mediterra¬ 
nean,  is  out  of  sight  in  its  deep  valley ;  nor  is  anything 
seen  of  the  Dead  Sea.  To  the  northwest  rises  rocky 
Carmel,  overhanging  the  Bay  of  Accha  (or  Acre),  on  the 
Mediterranean. 

The  whole  country  stands  high.  Hebron,  at  the  south, 
is  three  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea;  Jeru¬ 
salem  is  twenty-six  hundred ;  the  Mount  of  Olives,  twen¬ 
ty-seven  hundred  ;  and  Ebal  and  Gerizim  in  Samaria,  the 
same.  The  valley  in  which  Nazareth  stands  is  eight  hun¬ 
dred  and  twenty  feet  above  the  sea ;  that  at  the  foot  of 
Tabor,  four  hundred  and  thirty-nine ;  while  the  summit 
of  Tabor  itself  is  seventeen  hundred  and  fifty.  From 
Judaea  the  land  plunges  downward  very  rapidly  toward 
the  east  into  the  valley  of  Jordan.  The  surface  of  Lake 
Galilee  is  already  five  hundred  and  thirty-five  feet  below 
that  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  that  of  the  Dead  Sea  is 
five  hundred  feet  lower  down.*  Palestine  is  therefore  a 
mountain  fastness,  and  most  of  the  waves  of  war  swept 
by,  leaving  it  untouched  and  unassailed.  From  Jerusalem 
to  Jericho  the  distance  is  only  thirteen  miles,  but  the  lat¬ 
ter  place  is  a  thousand  feet  lower  than  the  former,  so  that 
it  was  very  proper  to  speak  of  a  man’s  “  going  down  from 
Jerusalem  to  Jericho.” 

The  J ews  belonged  to  what  has  been  called  the  Semitic 
race.  This  family,  the  only  historic  rival  of  the  Japhetic 
(or  Aryan)  race,  is  etlmologically  composed  of  the  As¬ 
syrians  and  Babylonians,  the  Phoenicians,  the  Hebrews 
and  other  Syrian  tribes,  the  Arabs  and  the  Carthagini¬ 
ans.  It  is  a  race  which  has  been  great  on  land  and  at 
sea.  In  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates  and  that  of  the  Tigris 
its  sons  carried  all  the  arts  of  social  life  to  the  highest 
perfection,  and  became  mighty  conquerors  and  warlike 
soldiers.  On  the  Mediterranean  their  ships,  containing 
Phoenician  navigators,  explored  the  coasts,  made  settle¬ 
ments  at  Carthage  and  Cadiz,  and  sailing  out  of  the  Straits 

*  Lynch  makes  it  thirteen  hundred  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  Medi¬ 
terranean.  See  Ritter. 


400 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


of  Gibraltar  went  as  far  north  as  Great  Britain,  and  cir¬ 
cumnavigated  Africa  two  thousand  years  before  Yasco  da 
Gama.  This  race  has  given  to  man  the  alphabet,  the 
Bible,  the  Koran,  commerce,  and  in  Hannibal  the  great¬ 
est  military  genius  of  all  time. 

That  the  different  nations  inhabiting  the  region  around 
the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  Syria  and  Arabia,  belonged  to 
one  great  race,  is  proved  by  the  unimpeachable  testimony 
of  language.  The  Bible  genealogies  trace  them  to  Sliem, 
the  son  of  Noah.  Ewald,* * * §  who  believes  that  this  region 
was  inhabited  by  an  aboriginal  people  long  before  the 
days  of  Abraham,  —  a  people  who  were  driven  out  by  the 
Canaanites,  —  nevertheless  says  that  they  no  doubt  were 
a  Semitic  people.  The  languages  of  all  these  nations  is 
closely  related,  being  almost  dialects  of  a  single  tongue, 
the  differences  between  them  being  hardly  greater  than 
between  the  subdivisions  of  the  German  group  of  lan¬ 
guages.*!*  That  which  has  contributed  to  preserve  the 
close  homogeneity  among  these  tongues  is,  that  they  have 
little  power  of  growth  or  development.  As  M.  Kenan 
says,  “  they  have  less  lived  than  lasted.”  J 

The  Phoenicians  used  a  language  almost  identical  with 
the  Hebrew.  A  sarcophagus  of  Ezmunazar,  king  of 
Sidon,  dating  from  the  fifth  century  before  Christ,  was 
discovered  a  few  years  since,  and  is  now  in  the  Museum 
of  the  Louvre,  it  contains  some  thirty  sentences  of  the 
length  of  an  average  verse  in  the  Bible,  and  is  in  pure 
Hebrew.  §  In  a  play  of  Plautus  IF  a  Carthaginian  is 
made  to  speak  a  long  passage  in  his  native  language,  the 
Punic  tongue  ;  this  is  also  very  readable  Hebrew.  The 
black  basalt  stele,  lately  discovered  in  the  land  of  Moab, 
contains  an  inscription  of  Mesha,  king  of  Moab,  ad¬ 
dressed  to  his  god,  Chemosh,  describing  his  victory  over 
the  Israelites.  This  is  also  in  a  Hebrew  dialect.  From 

*  History  of  Israel,  translated  by  Russell  Martineau,  Yol.  I.  p.  231. 

t  New  American  Cyclopredia,  art.  Semitic  Race. 

X  Quoted  by  Le  Normant,  Manual  of  Ancient  History  of  tlie  East,  Yol. 
I.  p.  71. 

§  Remarks  on  the  Phoenician  Inscription  of  Sidon,  by  Professor 
"William  W.  Turner,  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  Yol. 
VII.  No.  1. 

H  Pocnulus,  Act  Y.  Sc.  1. 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


401 


such  facts  it  appears  that  the  Hebrews,  Phoenicians,  and 
Canaanites  were  all  congeners  with  each  other,  and  with 
the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians. 

But  now  the  striking  fact  appears  that  the  Hebrew 
religion  differed  widely  from  that  of  these  other  nations 
of  the  same  family.  The  Assyrians,  Babylonians,  Phoeni¬ 
cians,  and  Carthaginians  all  possessed  a  nearly  identical 
religion.  They  all  believed  in  a  supreme  god,  called  by  the 
different  names  of  Ilu,  Bel,  Set,  Hadad,  Moloch,  Chemosh, 
Jaoh,  El,  Adon,  Asshur.  All  believed  in  subordinate 
and  secondary  beings,  emanations  from  this  supreme  be¬ 
ing,  his  manifestations  to  the  world,  rulers  of  the  planets. 
Like  other  pantheistic  religions,  the  custom  prevailed 
among  the  Semitic  nations  of  promoting  first  one  and 
then  another  deity  to  be  the  supreme  object  of  worship. 
Among  the  Assyrians,  as  among  the  Egyptians,  the  gods 
were  often  arranged  in  triads,  as  that  of  Ann,  Bel,  and  Ao. 
Anu,  or  Oannes,  wore  the  head  of  a  fish  ;  Bel  wore  the 
horns  of  a  bull ;  Ao  was  represented  by  a  serpent.  These 
religions  represented  the  gods  as  the  spirit  within  nature, 
and  behind  natural  objects  and  forces,  —  powers  within 
the  world,  rather  than  above  the  world.  Their  worship 
combined  cruelty  and  licentiousness,  and  was  perhaps  as 
debasing  a  superstition  as  the  world  has  witnessed.  The 
Greeks,  who  were  not  puritans  themselves  in  their  relig¬ 
ion,  were  shocked  at  the  impure  orgies  of  this  worship, 
and  horrified  at  the  sacrifice  of  children  among  the  Ca¬ 
naanites  and  Carthaginians. 

How  then  did  the  Hebrews,  under  Moses  and  the  later 
prophets,  originate  a  system  so  widely  different  ?  Their 
God  was  above  nature,  not  in  it.  He  stood  alone,  unac¬ 
companied  by  secondary  deities  ;  he  made  no  part  of  a 
triad  ;  he  was  not  associated  with  a  female  representative. 
His  worship  required  purity,  not  pollution ;  its  aim  was 
holiness,  and  its  spirit  humane,  not  cruel.  Monotheistic 
in  its  spirit  from  the  first,  it  became  an  absolute  mono¬ 
theism  in  its  development.  Whence  this  wide  departure 
in  the  Hebrews  from  the  religious  tendencies  and  belief 
of  the  surrounding  nations,  who  spoke  the  same  language, 
and  belonged  to  the  same  stock  ? 


402 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


M.  Eenan  considers  tliis  a  question  of  race.*  He  says  : 
“  The  Indo-European  race,  distracted  by  the  variety  of 
the  universe,  never  by  itself  arrived  at  monotheism.  The 
Semitic  race,  on  the  other  hand,  guided  by  its  firm  and 
sure  sight,  instantly  unmasked  Divinity,  and  without  re¬ 
flection  or  reasoning  attained  the  purest  form  of  religion 
that  humanity  has  known.”  But  the  Assyrians,  Babylo¬ 
nians,  Arabians  before  Mohammed,  Phoenicians,  and  Car¬ 
thaginians,  and  perhaps  the  Egyptians,  belonged  to  the 
Semitic  race.  Yet  none  of  these  nations  attained  to  any 
monotheism  purer  than  that  of  the  Veda  or  the  Avesta. 
The  Arabs,  near  relations  of  the  Hebrews,  were  divided 
between  a  worship  like  that  of  Babylon  and  Sabseism,  or 
star- worship.  No  doubt  in  all  these  Semitic  families  the 
idea  of  one  supreme  god  lay  behind  that  of  the  secondary 
.deities ;  but  this  was  also  the  case  in  the  Aryan  races. 
And  in  both  this  primitive  monotheism  receded  instead 
of  becoming  more  distinct,  with  the  single  exception  of 
the  Hebrews.  M.  Benan’s  view  is  not,  therefore,  sup¬ 
ported  by  the  facts.  We  must  look  further  to  find  the 
true  cause,  and  therefore  are  obliged  to  examine  somewhat 
in  detail  the  main  points  of  Hebrew  history.  It  would 
be  easy,  but  would  not  accord  with  our  plan,  to  accept  the 
common  Christian  explanation,  and  say,  “Monotheism 
was  a  direct  revelation  to  Moses.”  For  we  are  now  not 
able  to  assume  such  a  revelation,  and  are  obliged  to  con¬ 
sider  the  subject  from  the  outside,  from  the  stand-point  of 
pure  history. 

§  2.  Abraham;  or,  Judaism  as  the  family  Worship  of  a 

Supreme  Being. 

We  haveTieen  so  accustomed  to  regard  the  Jewish  relig¬ 
ion  as  a  part  of  our  own,  and  so  to  look  at  it  from  within, 
that  it  is  hard*to  take  the  historic  position,  and  to  look  at 
it  from  without.  But  to  compare  it  with  other  religions, 
and  to  see  what  it  really  is  and  is  not,  this  is  necessary. 
It  becomes  more  difficult  to  assume  the  attitude  of  an 

*  See  his  Essay  on  the  People  of  Israel,  in  Studies  of  Religious  His- 
itory  and  Criticism,  translated  by  0.  B.  Frothingham. 


THE  JEWISH  KELIGION. 


403 


impartial  observer,  because  of  the  doctrine  of  verbal  in¬ 
spiration,  so  universally  taught  in  the  Protestant  Church. 
From  childhood  we  have  looked  on  the  Old  Testament  as 
inspired  throughout,  and  all  on  the  same  level  of  abso¬ 
lute  infallibility.  There  is  no  high,  no  low,  no  degrees  of 
certitude  or  probability,  where  every  word  is  assumed  to 
be  the  very  word  of  God.  But  those  who  still  hold  to  the 
plenary  inspiration  of  the  Old  Testament  must  consent, 
for  our  present  purpose,  to  suspend  their  faith  in  this  doc¬ 
trine,  and  provisionally  to  look  at  the  Old  Testament 
with  the  same  impartial  though  friendly  scrutiny  with 
which  we  have  regarded  the  sacred  books  of  other  nations. 
Not  a  little  will  be  gained  for  the  Jewish  Scriptures  by 
this  position.  If  they  lose  the  authority  which  attaches 
to  the  Word  of  God,  they  will  gain  the  interest  which 
belongs  to  the  utterance  of  man. 

While  M.  Ptenan  finds  the  source  of  Hebrew  mono¬ 
theism  in  a  like  tendency  in  the  whole  Semitic  race,  —  a 
supposition  which  we  have  seen  to  be  contradicted  by  the 
facts,  —  Max  Muller  regards  the  true  origin  of  this  ten¬ 
dency  to  be  in  Abraham  himself,  the  friend  of  God,  and 
Father  of  the  Faithful.  He  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that  both  Moses  and  Christ,  and  subsequently  Mohammed, 
preached  no  new  God,  but  the  God  of  Abraham.  “  Thus,” 
says  he,  “  the  faith  in  the  one  living  God,  which  seemed 
to  require  the  admission  of  a  monotheistic  instinct  grafted 
in  every  member  of  the  Semitic  family,  is  traced  back  to 
one  man.”  He  adds  his  belief  that  this  faith  of  Abraham 
in  one  supreme  God  came  to  him  by  a  special  revelation. 

And  if,  by  a  special  revelation,  is  meant  a  grand  pro¬ 
found  insight,  an  inspired  vision  of  truth,  so  deep  and  so 
living  as  to  make  it  a  reality  like  that  of  the  outward 
world,  then  we  see  no  better  explanation  of  the  mono¬ 
theism  of  the  Hebrews  than  this  conviction  transmitted 
from  Abraham  through  father  and  son,  from  generation  to 
generation. 

For  the  most  curious  fact  about  this  Jewish  people  is, 
that  every  one  of  them  *  is  a  child  of  Abraham.  All  looked 
back  with  the  same  ancestral  pride  to  their  great  progenF 


*  Except  the  proselytes,  who  are  adopted  children. 


404 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


tor,  the  friend  of  God.  This  has  never  been  the  case 
with  any  other  nation,  for  the  Arabs  are  not  a  nation. 
One  can  hardly  imagine  a  greater  spur  to  patriotism 
than  this  union  of  pride  of  descent  with  pride  in  one’s 
nation  and  its  institutions.  The  proudest  and  poorest 
Jew  shared  it  together.  There  was  one  distinction,  and 
that  the  most  honorable,  which  belonged  equally  to  all. 

We  have  seen  that,  in  all  the  Semitic  nations,  behind  the 
numerous  divine  beings  representing  the  powers  of  nature, 
there  was  dimly  visible  one  Supreme  Being,  of  whom  all 
these  were  emanations.  The  tendency  to  lose  sight  of  this 
First  Great  Cause,  so  common  in  the  race,  was  reversed  in 
Abraham.  His  soul  rose  to  the  contemplation  of  the  Per¬ 
fect  Being,  above  all,  and  the  source  of  all.  With  pas¬ 
sionate  love  he  adored  this  Most  High  God,  Maker  of 
heaven  and  earth.  Such  was  his  devotion  to  this  Almighty 
Being,  that  men,  wondering,  said,  “  Abraham  is  the  friend 
of  the  Most  High  God  !  ”  He  desired  to  find  a  home 
where  he  could  bring  up  his  children  in  this  pure  faith, 
undisturbed  and  unperverted  by  the  gross  and  low  worship 
around  him.  In  some  “  deep  dream  or  solemn  vision  ”  it 
was  borne  in  on  his  mind  that  he  must  go  and  find  such 
a  home. 

We  are  not  to  suppose,  however,  that  the  mind  of  Abra¬ 
ham  rose  to  a  clear  concej)tion  of  the  unity  of  God,  as 
excluding  all  other  divine  beings.  The  idea  of  local, 
tribal,  family  gods  was  too  deeply  rooted  to  be  at  once  re¬ 
linquished.  Abraham,  as  described  in  Genesis,  is  a  great 
Arab  chief,  a  type  of  patriarchal  life,  in  which  all  author¬ 
ity  is  paternal.  The  religion  of  such  a  period  is  filial,  and 
God  is  viewed  as  the  protector  and  friend  of  the  family  or 
tribe.  Only  the  family  God  of  Abraham  was  the  highest 
of  all  gods,  the  Almighty  (Gen.  xvii.  1),  who  was  also  the 
God  of  Isaac  (Gen.  xxviii.  3)  and  of  Jacob  (Gen.  xxxv. 

H)- 

Stanley  *  expresses  his  satisfaction  that  the  time  has 
past  in  which  the  most  fastidious  believer  can  object  to 
hearing  Abraham  called  a  Bedouin  sheik.  The  type  has 
remained  unchanged  through  all  the  centuries,  and  the 

*  History  of  the  Jewish  Church,  Lect.  I. 


THE  JEWISH  KELIGION. 


405 


picture  in  the  Bible  of  Abraham  in  his  tent,  of  his  hos¬ 
pitality,  his  self-respect,  his  courage,  and  also  of  his  less 
noble  traits,  occasional  cunning  and  falsehood,  and  cru¬ 
elty  toward  Hagar  and  Ishmael,  —  these  qualities,  good 
and  bad,  are  still  those  of  the  desert.  Only  in  Abra¬ 
ham  something  higher  and  exceptional  was  joined  with 
them. 

In  the  Book  of  Genesis  Abraham  enters  quite  abrupt¬ 
ly  upon  the  scene.  His  genealogy  is  given  in  Genesis 
(chap,  xi.),  he  being  the  ninth  in  descent  from  Shem, 
each  generation  occupying  a  little  more  than  thirty  years. 
The  birth  of  Abraham  is  usually  placed  somewhere  about 
two  thousand  years  before  Christ.  His  father’s  name  was 
Terah,  whom  the  Jewish  and  Mohammedan  traditions  de¬ 
scribe  as  an  idolater  and  maker  of  idols.  He  had  two 
brothers,  Uahor  and  Haran  ;  the  latter  being  the  father  of 
Lot,  and  the  other,  Nalior,  being  the  grandfather  of  Be- 
becca,  wife  of  Isaac.  Abraham’s  father,  Terah,  lived  in 
Ur  of  the  Chaldees  (called  in  Scripture  Casdim).  The 
Chaldees,  who  subsequently  inhabited  the  region  about 
the  Persian  Gulf,  seemed  at  first  to  have  lived  among  the 
mountains  of  Armenia,  at  the  source  of  the  Tigris ;  and 
this  was  the  region  where  Abraham  was  born,  a  region 
now  occupied  by  the  people  called  Curds,  who  are  perhaps 
descendants  of  the  old  Chaldees,  the  inhabitants  of  Ur. 
The  Curds  are  Mohammedans  and  robbers,  and  quite 
independent,  never  paying  taxes  to  the  Porte.  The 
Chaldees  are  frequently  mentioned  in  Scripture  and  in 
ancient  writers.  Xenophon  speaks  of  the  Carduchi  as 
inhabitants  of  the  mountains  of  Armenia,  and  as  making 
incursions  thence  to  plunder  the  country,  just  as  the 
Curds  do  now.  He  says  they  were  found  there  by  the 
younger  Cyrus,  and  by  the  ten  thousand  Greeks.  The 
Greeks,  in  their  retreat,  were  obliged  to  fight  their  way 
through  them,  and  found  them  very  skilful  archers.  So 
did  the  Eomans  under  Crassus  and  Mark  Antony.  And 
so  are  they  described  by  the  Prophet  Habakkuk  (chap, 
i.  6-9):  — 

*  For  lo,  I  raise  up  the  Chaldeans, 

A  bitter  and  hasty  nation, 


406 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Which  marches  far  and  wide  in  the  earth, 

To  possess  the  dwellings  that  are  not  theirs. 

They  are  terrible  and  dreadful, 

Their  decrees  and  their  judgments  proceed  only  from  themselves. 
Swifter  than  leopards  are  their  horses, 

And  fiercer  than  the  evening  wolves. 

Their  horsemen  prance  proudly  around  ; 

And  their  horsemen  shall  come  from  afar  and  fly, 

Like  the  eagle  when  he  pounces  on  his  prey.  - 
They  all  shall  come  for  violence, 

In  troops,  —  their  glance  is  ever  forward  ! 

They  gather  captives  like  the  sand  !  ” 

As  they  were  in  the  time  of  Habakkuk,  so  are  they 
to-day.  Shut  up  on  every  side  in  the  Persian  Empire, 
their  ancestors,  the  Carduclii,  refused  obedience  to  the 
great  king  and  his  satraps,  just  as  the  Curds  refuse  to 
obey  the  grand  seignior  and  his  pashas.  They  can  raise 
a  hundred  and  forty  thousand  armed  men.  They  are 
capable  of  any  undertaking.  Mohammed  himself  said, 
“  They  would  yet  revolutionize  the  world.” 

The  ancient  Chaldees  seem  to  have  been  fire-worship¬ 
pers,  like  the  Persians.  They  were  renowned  for  the  study 
of  the  heavens  and  the  worship  of  the  stars,  and  some 
remains  of  Persian  dualism  still  linger  among  their  de¬ 
scendants,  who  are  accused  of  Devil-worship  by  their 
neighbors. 

That  Abraham  was  a  real  person,  and  that  his  story 
is  historically  reliable,  can  hardly  be  doubted  by  those 
who  have  the  historic  sense.  Such  pictures,  painted  in 
detail  with  a  Pre-Raphaelite  minuteness,  are  not  of  ' the 
nature  of  legends.  Stories  which  are  discreditable  to  his 
character,  and  which  place  him  in  a  humiliating  position 
towards  Pharaoh  and  Abimelech,  would  not  have  appeared 
in  a  fictitious  narrative.  The  mythical  accounts  of  Abra¬ 
ham,  as  found  among  the  Mohammedans  and  in  the  Tal¬ 
mud,*  show,  by  their  contrast,  the  difference  between  fable 
and  history. 

The  events  in  the  life  of  Abraham  are  so  well  known 
that  it  is  not  necessary  even  to  allude  to  them.  We  will 
only  refer  to  one,  as  showing  that  others  among  the  tribes 
in  Palestine,  besides  Abraham,  had  a  faith  in  God  similar 

*  See,  for  these  marvellous  stories,  W eil,  Legends  of  the  Mussulmans. 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


407 


to  his.  This  is  the  account  of  his  meeting  with  Melchis- 
edek.  This  mysterious  person  has  been  so  treated  by 
typologists  that  all  human  meaning  has  gone  out  of  him, 
and  he  has  become,  to  most  minds,  a  very  vapory  charac¬ 
ter.*  But  this  is  doing  him  great  injustice. 

One  mistake  often  made  about  him  is,  to  assume  that 
“  Melcliisedek,  King  of  Salem,”  gives  us  the  name  and 
residence  of  the  man,  whereas  both  are  his  official  titles. 
His  name  we  do  not  know ;  his  office  and  title  had 
swallowed  it  up.  “  King  of  J ustice  and  King  of  Peace,” 
—  this  is  his  designation.  His  office,  as  we  believe,  was 
to  be  umpire  among  the  chiefs  of  neighboring  tribes.  By 
deciding  the  questions  which  arose  among  them,  accord¬ 
ing  to  equity,  he  received  his  title  of  “  King  of  J  ustice.” 
By  thus  preventing  the  bloody  arbitrament  of  war,  he 
gained  the  other  name,  “  King  of  Peace.”  All  ques¬ 
tions,  therefore,  as  to  where  “  Salem  ”  was,  fall  to  the 
ground.  Salem  means  “  peace  ”  ;  it  does  not  mean  the 
place  of  his  abode. 

But  in  order  to  settle  such  intertribal  disputes,  two 
things  were  necessary :  first,  that  the  surrounding  Bed¬ 
ouin  chiefs  should  agree  to  take  him  as  their  arbiter ; 
and,  secondly,  that  some  sacredness  should  attach  to  his 
character,  and  give  authority  to  his  decisions.  Like  others 
in  those  days,  he  was  both  king  and  priest ;  but  he  was 
priest  “  of  the  Most  High  God,”  —  not  of  the  local  gods 
of  the  separate  tribes,  but  of  the  highest  God,  above 
all  the  rest.  That  he  was  the  acknowledged  arbiter  of 
surrounding  tribes  appears  from  the  fact  that  Abraham 
paid  to  him  tithes  out  of  the  spoils.  It  is  not  likely  that 
Abraham  did  this  if  there  were  no  precedent  for  it ;  for 
he  regarded  the  spoils  as  belonging,  not  to  himself,  but  to 
the  confederates  in  whose  cause  he  fought.  No  doubt  it 
was  the  custom,  as  in  the  case  of  Delphi,  to  pay  tithes  to 
this  supreme  arbiter  ;  and  in  doing  so  Abraham  was  sim¬ 
ply  following  the  custom.  The  Jewish  traveller,  Wolff, 
states  that  in  Mesopotamia  a  similar  custom  prevails  at 
the  present  time.  One  sheik  is  selected  from  the  rest,  on 

*  See  my  sermon  on  “  Melchisedek  and  his  Moral,”  in  “The  Hour 
that  Cometh,”  second  edition. 


408 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


3 


account  of  liis  superior  probity  and  piety,  and  becomes 
their  “  King  of  Peace  and  Righteousness.”  A  similar  cus¬ 
tom,  I  am  told,  prevails  among  some  American  tribes.  In- 
*  deed,  where  society  is  organized  by  clans,  subject  to  local 
chiefs,  some  such  arrangement  seems  necessary  to  prevent 
perpetual  feuds. 

This  “  King  of  justice  and  Peace  ”  gave  refreshments  to 
Abraham  and  his  followers  after  the  battle,  blessing  him 
in  the  name  of  the  Most  High  God.  As  he  came  from 
no  one  knows  where,  and  has  no  official  status  or  descent, 
the  fact  that  Abraham  recognized  him  as  a  true  priest  is 
used  in  the  Book  of  Psalms  and  the  Epistle  to  the  He¬ 
brews  to  prove  there  is  a  true  priesthood  beside  that  of 
the  house  of  Levi.  A  priest  after  the  order  of  Melcliise- 
dek  is  one  who  becomes  so  by  having  in  him  the  true 
faith,  though  he  has  “  no  father  nor  mother,  beginning  of 
days  nor  end  of  life,”  that  is,  no  genealogical  position 
in  an  hereditary  priesthood. 

The  God  of  Abraham  was  “  The  Most  High.”  He  was 
the  family  God  of  Abraham’s  tribe  and  of  Abraham’s  de¬ 
scendants.  Those  who  should  worship  other  gods  would 
be  disloyal  to  their  tribe,  false  to  their  ancestors,  and  must 
be  regarded  as  outlaws.  Thus  the  faith  in  a  Supreme 
Being  was  first  established  in  the  minds  of  the  descend¬ 
ants  of  Abraham  by  family  pride,  reverence  for  ancestors, 
and  patriotic  feeling.  The  faith  of  Abraham,  that  his  God 
would  give  to  his  descendants  the  land  of  Palestine,  and 
multiply  them  till  they  should  be  as  numerous  as  the 
stars  or  the  sand,  was  that  which  made  him  the  Father  of 
the  Faithful. 

The  faith  of  Abraham,  as  we  gather  it  from  Genesis, 
was  in  God  as  a  Supreme  Being.  Though  almighty, 
God  was  willing  to  be  Abraham’s  personal  protector  and 
friend.  He  talks  with  Abraham  face  to  face.  He  comes 
to  him,  and  agrees  to  give  to  him  and  to  his  posterity 
the  land  of  Canaan,  and  in  this  promise  Abraham  has  en¬ 
tire  faith.  His  monotheism  was  indeed  of  an  imperfect 
kind.  It  did  not  exclude  a  belief  in  other  gods,  though 
they  were  regarded  as  inferior  to  his  own.  His  family 
God,  though  almighty,  was  not  omnipresent.  He  came 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


409 


down  to  learn  whether  the  rumors  concerning  the  sinful¬ 
ness  of  Sodom  were  correct  or  not.  He  was  not  quite 
sure  of  Abraham’s  faith,  and  so  he  tested  it  by  command¬ 
ing  him  to  sacrifice  Isaac,  in  whom  alone  the  promise  to 
Abraham’s  descendants  could  be  fulfilled.  But  though 
the  monotheism  of  Abraham  was  of  so  imperfect  a  kind, 
it  had  in  it  the  root  of  the  better  kind  which  was  to 
come.  It  was  imperfect,  but  not  false.  It  was  entire 
faith  in  the  supreme  power  of  Jehovah  to  do  what  he 
would,  and  in  his  disposition  to  be  a  friend  to  the  patri¬ 
arch  and  his  posterity.  It  was,  therefore,  trust  in  the 
divine  power,  wisdom,  and  goodness.  The  difference  be¬ 
tween  the  religion  of  Abraham  and  that  of  the  polythe¬ 
istic  nations  was,  that  while  they  descended  from  the 
idea  of  a  Supreme  Being  into  that  of  subordinate  ones,  he 
went  back  to  that  of  the  Supreme,  and  clung  to  this  with 
his  whole  soul. 

§  3.  Moses;  or,  Judaism  as  the  national  Worship  of  a  just 

and  holy  King. 

In  speaking  of  Moses  and  of  his  law,  it  may  be  thought 
necessary  to  begin  by  showing  that  such  a  man  as  Moses 
really  existed ;  for  modern  criticism  has  greatly  em¬ 
ployed  itself  in  questioning  the  existence  of  great  men. 
As  the  telescope  resolves  stars  into  double,  triple,  and 
quadruple  stars,  and  finally  into  star-dust,  so  the  critics, 
turning  their  optical  tubes  toward  that  mighty  orb  which 
men  call  Homer,  have  declared  that  they  have  resolved 
him  into  a  great  number  of  little  Homers.  The  same 
process  has  been  attempted  in  regard  to  Shakespeare. 
Some  have  tried  to  show  that  there  never  was  any  Shake¬ 
speare,  but  only  many  Shakespeare  writers.  In  like 
manner,  the  critics  have  sought  to  dissolve  Moses  with 
their  powerful  analysis,  and,  instead  of  Moses,  to  give  us 
a  number  of  fragmentary  writings  from  different  times 
and  hands,  skilfully  joined  together ;  in  fact,  instead  of 
Moses,  to  give  us  a  mosaic.  Criticism  substitutes  human 
tendencies  in  the  place  of  great  men,  does  not  love  to 

believe  in  genius,  and  often  appears  to  think  that  a  nuim 

18 


410 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


her  of  mediocrities  added  together  can  accomplish  more 
than  one  man  of  genius. 

Certainly  this  is  a  mistake.  The  easiest  and  most  nat¬ 
ural  solution  of  wonderful  results  is  the  supposition  of 
genius,  inspiration,  heroism,  as  their  cause.  Great  men 
explain  history.  Napoleon  explains  the  history  of  Eu¬ 
rope  during  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Suppose  a  critic,  a 
thousand  years  hence,  should  resolve  Napoleon  into  half 
a  dozen  Napoleons  ;  would  they  explain  the  history  of 
Europe  as  well?  Given  a  man  like  Napoleon,  and  we 
can  understand  the  French  campaigns  in  Italy  and  Ger¬ 
many,  the  overthrow  of  Austria,  the  annihilation  of 
Prussia,  the  splendid  host  of  field-marshals,  the  Bona¬ 
parte  circle  of  kings,  the  Codex,  the  Simplon  Hoad,  and  the 
many  changes  of  states  and  governments  on  the  map  of 
Europe.  One  man  of  genius  explains  it  all.  But  take 
away  the  man  of  genius,  and  substitute  a  group  of  small 
men  in  his  place,  and  the  thing  is  much  more  obscure  and 
unintelligible.  So,  given  Moses,  the  man  of  genius  and 
inspiration,  and  we  can  understand  the  Exodus,  under¬ 
stand  the  Jewish  laws,  understand  the  Pentateuch,  and 
understand  the  strange  phenomenon  of  Judaism.  But, 
instead  of  Moses,  given  a  mosaic,  however  skilfully  put 
together,  and  the  thing  is  more  difficult.  Therefore, 
Moses  is  to  be  preferred  to  the  mosaic,  as  the  more  rea¬ 
sonable  and  probable  of  the  two,  just  as  Homer  is  prefer¬ 
able  to  the  Homerids,  and  Shakespeare  to  the  Shake¬ 
speare  Club* 

*  Strabo,  who  probably  wrote  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  thus  describes 
Moses  :  — 

“  Moses,  an  Egyptian  priest,  who  possessed  a  considerable  tract  of 
Lower  Egypt,  unable  any  longer  to  bear  with  what  existed  there,  de¬ 
parted  thence  to  Syria,  and  with  him  went  out  many  who  honored  the 
Divine  Being.  For  Moses  taught  that  the  Egyptians  were  not  right  in 
likening  the  nature  of  God  to  beasts  and  cattle,  nor  yet  the  Africans  or 
even  the  Greeks,  in  fashioning  their  gods  in  the  form  of  men.  He  held 
that  this  only  was  God,  — that  which  encompasses  all  of  us,  earth  and  sea, 
that  which  we  call  heaven,  the  order  of  the  world,  and  the  nature  of 
things.  Of  this,  who  that  had  any  sense  would  venture  to  invent  an 
image  like  to  anything  which  exists  among  ourselves  ?  Far  better  to 
abandon  all  statuary  and  sculpture,  all  setting  apart  of  sacred  precincts 
and  shrines,  and  to  pay  reverence  without  any  image  whatever.  The 
course  prescribed  was  that  those  who  have  the  gift  of  divination  for 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


411 


We  find  in  Moses  the  three  elements  of  genius,  inspira¬ 
tion,  and  knowledge.  Perhaps  it  is  not  difficult  to  distin¬ 
guish  them.  We  see  the  natural  genius  and  tempera¬ 
ment  of  Moses  breaking  out  again  and  again  throughout 
his  career,  as  the  rocky  strata  underlying  the  soil  crop 
out  in  the  midst  of  gardens,  orchards,  and  fields  of  corn. 
The  basis  of  his  nature  was  the  hardest  kind  of  rock, 
with  a  surging  subterranean  fire  of  passion  beneath  it. 
An  awful  soul,  stern  and  terrible  as  Michael  Angelo  con¬ 
ceived  him,  the  sublime  genius  carving  the  sublime  law¬ 
giver  in  congenial  marble.  The  statue  is  as  stern  as  law 
itself.  It  sits  in  one  of  the  Eoman  churches,  between 
two  columns,  the  right  hand  grasping  the  tables  of  the 
law,  the  symbolic  horns  of  power  protruding  from  the 
brow,  and  the  austere  look  of  the  judge  bent  upon  those 
on  the  left  hand.  A  fiery  nature,  an  iron  will,  a  rooted 
sense  of  justice,  were  strangely  overflowed  and  softened 
by  a  tenderness  toward  his  race,  which  was  not  so  much 
the  feeling  of  a  brother  for  brethren  as  of  a  parent  for 
children. 

Educated  in  the  house  of  Pharaoh,  and  adopted  by 
his  daughter  as  her  child,  taken  by  the  powerful  and 
learned  priesthood  of  Egypt  into  their  ranks,  and  sharing 
for  many  years  their  honors  and  privileges,  his  heart 
yearned  toward  his  brethren  in  the  land  of  Goshen,  and 
he  went  out  to  see  them  in  their  sufferings  and  slavery. 
His  impetuous  nature  broke  out  in  sudden  indignation 
at  the  sight  of  some  act  of  cruelty,  and  he  smote  the 
overseer  who  was  torturing  the  Jewish  slave.  That  act 
made  him  an  exile,  and  sent  him  to  live  in  Arabia  Petrea, 
as  a  shepherd.  If  he  had  thought  only  of  his  own  pros¬ 
pects  and  position,  he  would  not  have  gone  near  the  Is¬ 
raelites  at  all,  but  lived  quietly  as  an  Egyptian  priest  in 
the  palace  of  Pharaoh.  But,  as  the  writer  to  the  Hebrews 
says,  he  “  refused  to  be  called  the  son  of  Pharaoh’s 
daughter ;  choosing  rather  to  suffer  affliction  with  the 
people  of  God  than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a 

themselves  or  others  should  compose  themselves  to  sleep  within  the 
Temple,  and  those  who  live  temperately  and  justly  may  expect  to  receive 
some  good  gift  from  God.” 


412 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


season.”  *  Another  instance  of  his  generous  and  tender 
feelings  toward  his  nation  is  seen  in  his  behavior  when 
the  people  made  the  golden  calf.  First,  his  anger  broke 
out  against  them,  and  all  the  sternness  of  the  lawgiver 
appeared  in  his  command  to  the  people  to  cut  down  their 
idolatrous  brethren ;  then  the  bitter  tide  of  anger  with¬ 
drew,  and  that  of  tenderness  took  its  place,  and  he  re¬ 
turned  into  the  mountain  to  the  Lord  and  said,  “  O,  this 
people  have  sinned  a  great  sin,  and  have  made  them  gods 
of  gold.  Yet  now,  if  thou  wilt  forgive  their  sin  —  ;  and  if 
not,  blot  me,  I  pray  thee,  out  of  thy  book  which  thou  hast 
written.”  Moses  did  not  make  much  account  of  human 
life.  He  struck  dead  the  Egyptian  who  was  ill-treating  a 
Jew;  he  slew  the  Jews  who  turned  to  idolatry;  he  slew 
the  Midianites  who  tempted  them  ;  but  then  he  was  ready 
to  give  up  his  own  life  too  for  the  sake  of  his  people  and 
for  the  sake  of  the  cause.  This  spirit  of  Moses  pervades 
his  law,  this  same  inconsistency  went  from  his  character 
into  his  legislation  ;  his  relentless  severity  and  his  tender 
sympathy  both  appear  in  it.  He  knows  no  mercy  toward 
the  transgressor,  but  toward  the  unfortunate  he  is  full  of 
compassion.  His  law  says,  “  Eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth, 
hand  for  hand,  burning  for  burning,  stripe  for  stripe.” 
But  it  also  says,  “Ye  shall  neither  vex  a  stranger,  nor  op¬ 
press  him,  for  ye  were  strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  Ye 
shall  not  afflict  any  widow  or  fatherless  child.”  “  If  thou 
lend  money  to  any  of  my  people  that  is  poor  by  thee,  thou 
shalt  not  be  to  him  as  an  usurer.”  “  If  thou  at  all  take  thy 
neighbor’s  raiment  to  pledge,  thou  shalt  deliver  it  unto 
him  by  that  the  sun  goetli  down,  for  that  is  his  covering.” 
“  If  thou  meet  thine  enemy’s  ox  or  his  ass  going  astray, 
thou  shalt  surely  bring  it  back  to  him  again.” 

Such  severities  joined  with  such  humanities  we  find  in 
the  character  of  Moses,  and  such  we  find  to  have  passed 
from  his  character  into  his  laws.  But  perhaps  the  deepest 
spring  of  character,  and  its  most  essential  trait,  was  his 
sense  of  justice  as  embodied  in  law.  The  great  idea  of 
a  just  law,  freely  chosen,  under  its  various  aspects  of  Di- 

*  “Esteeming  the  reproach  of  the  Christ”  (that  is,  of  the  anointed, 
or,  the  anointed  people)  “greater  riches  than  the  treasures  of  Egypt.” 


THE  JEWISH  KELIGION. 


413 


vine  command,  ceremonial  regulations,  political  order,  and 
moral  duty,  distinguished  his  policy  and  legislation  from 
that  of  other  founders  of  states.  His  laws  rested  on  no 
basis  of  mere  temporal  expediency,  but  on  the  two  pivots 
of  an  absolute  Divine  will  and  a  deliberate  national  choice. 
It  had  the  double  sanction  of  religion  and  justice  ;  it  was 
at  once  a  revelation  and  a  contract.  There  was  a  third 
idea  which  it  was  the  object  of  his  whole  system,  and 
especially  of  his  ceremonial  system,  to  teach  and  to  culti¬ 
vate,  —  that  of  holiness.  God  is  a  holy  God,  his  law  is  a 
holy  law,  the  place  of  his  worship  is  a  holy  place,  and  the 
Jewish  nation  as  his  worshippers  are  a  holy  people.  This 
belief  appears  in  the  first  revelation  which  he  received  at 
the  burning  bush  in  the  land  of  Midian.  It  explains 
many  things  in  the  Levitical  law,  which  without  this 
would  seem  trivial  and  unmeaning.  The  ceremonial 
purifications,  clean  and  unclean  meats,  the  arrangements 
of  the  tabernacle,  with  its  holy  place,  and  its  Holy  of 
Holies,  the  Sabbath,  the  dresses  of  the  priests,  the  oint¬ 
ment  with  which  the  altar  was  anointed,  are  all  intended 
to  develop  in  the  minds  of  the  people  the  idea  of  holiness.* 
And  there  never  was  a  people  on  whose  souls  this  notion 
was  so  fully  impressed  as  it  was  upon  the  Jews.  Exam¬ 
ined,  it  means  the  eternal  distinction  between  right  and 
wrong,  between  good  and  evil,  and  the  essential  hostility 
which  exists  between  them.  Applied  to  God,  it  shows 
him  to  have  a  nature  essentially  moral,  and  a  true  moral 
character.  He  loves  good  and  hates  evil.  He  does  not 
regard  them  with  exactly  the  same  feeling.  He  cannot 
treat  the  good  man  and  the  bad  man  in  exactly  the. same 
way.  More  than  monotheism,  this  perhaps  is  the  charac¬ 
teristic  of  the  theology  of  Moses. 

The  character  of  Moses  had  very  marked  deficiencies, 
it  had  its  weakness  as  well  as  its  strength.  He  was 
impetuous,  impatient,  wanting  in  self-possession  and  self- 
control.  There  is  a  verse  in  the  Book  of  Numbers  (be¬ 
lieved  by  Eichhorn  and  Bosenmuller  to  be  an  interpolation) 
which  calls  him  the  meekest  of  men.  Such  a  view  of  his 

*  See  this  well  explained  in  The  Philosophy  of  the  Plan  of  Salva¬ 
tion,  Jby  James  B.  Walker. 


414 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


character  is  not  confirmed  by  such  actions  as  his  killing 
the  Egyptian,  his  breaking  the  stone  tables,  and  the  like. 
He  declares  of  himself  that  he  had  no  power  as  a  speaker, 
being  deficient  probably  in  the  organ  of  language.  His 
military  skill  seems  small,  since  he  appointed  Joshua  for 
the  military  commander,  when  the  people  were  attacked 
by  the  Amalekites.  Hor  did  he  have,  what  seems  more 
important  in  a  legislator,  the  practical  tact  of  organizing 
the  administration  of  affairs.  His  father-in-law,  Jethro, 
showed  him  how  to  delegate  the  details  of  government  to 
subordinates,  and  to  reserve  for  himself  the  general  super¬ 
intendence.  Up  to  that  time  he  had  tried  to  do  everything 
by  himself.  That  great  art,  in  administration,  of  selecting 
proper  tools  to  work  with,  Moses  did  not  seem  to  have. 

Having  thus  briefly  sketched  some  of  the  qualities  of 
his  natural  genius  and  character,  let  us  see  what  were  the 
essential  elements  of  his  legislation ;  and  first,  of  his  the¬ 
ology,  or  teachings  concerning  God. 

Monotheism,  as  we  all  know,  lay  at  the  foundation  of 
the  law  of  Moses.  But  there  are  different  kinds  of  mono¬ 
theism.  In  one  sense  we  have  seen  almost  all  ancient  re¬ 
ligions  to  have  been  monotheisms.  All  taught  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  a  Supreme  Being.  But  usually  this  Supreme  Being 
was  not  the  object  of  worship,  but  had  receded  into  the 
background,  while  subordinate  gods  were  those  really  rev¬ 
erenced.  Moses  taught  that  the  Supreme  Being  who  made 
heaven  and  earth,  the  Most  High  God,  was  also  the  only 
object  of  worship.  It  does  not  appear  that  Moses  denied 
the  existence  of  the  gods  who  were  adored  by  the  other 
nations  ;  but  he  maintained  that  they  were  all  inferior 
and  subordinate,  and  far  beneath  Jehovah,  and  also  that 
Jehovah  alone  was  to  be  worshipped  by  the  Jews.  “Thou 
shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  me  ”  (Exod.  xx.  3 ;  Dent, 
v.  7).  “  Ye  shall  not  go  after  other  gods  ”  (Deut.  vi.  14). 

“  Ye  shall  make  no  mention  of  the  name  of  other  gods  ” 
(Exod.  xxiii.  13).  “  For  the  Lord  your  God  is  God  of  gods 
and  Lord  of  lords  ”  (Deut.  x.  17).  The  first  great  peculiarity 
of  the  theology  of  Moses  was  therefore  this,  that  it  taught 
that  the  Infinite  and  Supreme  Being,  who  in  most  relig¬ 
ions  was  the  hidden  God,  was  to  the  Jews  the  revealed 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


415 


and  ever-present  God,  the  object  of  worship,  obedience, 
trust,  and  love.  His  name  was  Jahveh,  the  “  I  am,”  the 
Being  of  beings  * 

In  a  certain  sense  Moses  taught  the  strict  unity  of  God. 
“  Hear,  0  Israel ;  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord  ”  (Deut. 
vi.  4),  is  a  statement  which  Jesus  calls  the  chief  of  the 
commandments  (Mark  xii.  29,  30).  For  when  God  is 
conceived  of  as  the  Supreme  Being  he  becomes  at  once 
separated  by  an  infinite  distance  from  all  other  deities, 
and  they  cease  to  be  gods  in  the  sense  in  which  he  is 
God.  Now  as  Moses  gave  to  Jehovah  infinite  attributes, 
and  taught  that  he  was  the  maker  and  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earth,  eternal  (Deut.  xxxiii.  27),  a  living  God,  it 
followed  that  there  was  no  God  with  him  (Deut.  xxxii. 
39),  which  the  prophets  afterwards  wrought  out  into  a 
simple  monotheism.  “  I  am  God,  and  there  is  no  other 
God  beside  me  ”  (Isaiah  xlivv  8).  Therefore,  though  Moses 
did  not  assert  in  terms  a  simple  monotheism,  he  taught 
what  contained  the  essential  germ  of  that  idea. 

This  one  God,  supreme  and  infinite,  was  also  so  spir¬ 
itual  that  no  idol,  no  statue,  was  to  be  made  as  his  sym¬ 
bol.  He  was  a  God  of  truth  and  stern  justice,  visiting 
the  sins  of  parents  on  the  children  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generation  of  those  who  hated  him,  but  showing  mercy 

*  “  ‘Behold,  when  I  shall  come  to  the  children  of  Israel,  and  shall  say 
unto  them,  The  God  of  your  fathers  hath  sent  me  unto  you,  and  they  shall 
say,  What  is  his  name  ?  What  shall  I  say  unto  them  ?  And  God  said 

unto  Moses,  I  am  the  I  am . Thus  shalt  thou  say  unto  the  children 

of  Israel,  I  am  hath  sent  me  unto  you  !  ’ 

“  It  has  been  observed  that  the  great  epochs  of  the  history  of  the 
Chosen  People  are  marked  by  the  several  names,  by  which  in  each  the 
Divine  Nature  is  indicated.  In  the  patriarchal  age  we  have  already  seen 
that  the  oldest  Hebrew  form  by  which  the  most  general  idea  of  Divinity 
is'  expressed  is  ‘El-Elohim,’  ‘The  Strong  One,’  ‘The  Strong  Ones,’ 

‘  The  Strong.’  “  Beth-El,”  *  Peni-El,’  remained  even  to  the  latest  times 
memorials  of  this  primitive  mode  of  address  and  worship.  But  now  a 
new  name,  and  with  it  a  new  truth,  was  introduced.  I  am  Jehovah  ;  I 
appeared  unto  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  by  the  name  of  El-Shaddai 
(God  Almighty)  ;  but  by  my  name  Jehovah  was  I  not  known  unto  them. 
The  only  certain  use  of  it  before  the  time  of  Moses  is  in  the  name  of 
‘Jochebed,’  borne  by  his  own  mother.  It  was  the  declaration  of  the 
simplicity,  the  unity,  the  self-existence  of  the  Divine  Nature,  the  exact 
opposite  to  all  the  multiplied  forms  of  idolatry,  human,  animal,  and 
celestial,  that  prevailed,  as  far  as  we  know,  everywhere  else.”  —  Stanley’s 
Jewish  Church. 


416 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


to  thousands  of  those  who  loved  and  obeyed  him.  He 
was  a  God  who  was  merciful,  long-suffering,  gracious, 
repenting  him  of  the  evil,  and  seeking  still  to  pardon 
and  to  bless  his  people.  No  doubt  there  is  anthropomor¬ 
phism  in  Moses.  But  if  man  is  made  in  God’s  image, 
then  God  is  in  man’s  image  too,  and  we  must ,  if  we  think 
of  him  as  a  living  and  real  God,  think  of  him  as  possess¬ 
ing  emotions  like  our  human  emotions  of  love,  pity,  sorrow, 
anger,  only  purified  from  their  grossness  and  narrowness. 

Human  actions  and  human  passions  are  no  doubt 
ascribed  by  Moses  to  God.  A  good  deal  of  criticism  has 
been  expended  upon  the  Jewish  Scriptures  by  those  who 
think  that  philosophy  consists  in  making  God  as  different 
and  distant  from  man  as  possible,  and  so  prefer  to  speak 
of  him  as  Deity,  Providence,  and  Nature.  But  it  is  only 
because  man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God  that  he  can 
revere  God  at  all.  J acobi  says,  that,  “  God,  in  creating,  theo- 
morphizes  man  ;  man,  therefore,  necessarily  anthrojoomoT- 
phizes  God.”  And  Swedenborg  teaches  that  God  is  a 
man,  since  man  was  made  in  the  image  of  God.  When¬ 
ever  we  think  of  God  as  present  and  living,  when  we 
ascribe  to  him  pleasure  and  displeasure,  liking  and  dis¬ 
liking,  thinking,  feeling,  and  willing,  we  make  him  like  a 
man.  And  not  to  do  this  may  be  speculative  theism,  but 
is  practical  atheism.  Moses  forbade  the  Jews  to  make 
any  image  or  likeness  of  God,  yet  the  Pentateuch  speaks 
of  his  jealousy,  wrath,  repentance ;  he  hardens  Pha¬ 
raoh’s  heart,  changes  his  mind  about  Balaam,  and  comes 
down  from  heaven  in  order  to  see  if  the  people  of  Sodom 
were  as  wicked  as  they  were  represented  to  be.  These 
views  are  limitations  to  the  perfections  of  the  Deity,  and 
so  far  the  views  of  Moses  were  limited.  But  this  is  also 
the  strong  language  of  poetry,  which  expresses  in  a  strik¬ 
ing  and  practical  way  the  personality,  holiness,  and  con¬ 
stant  providence  of  God. 

But  Moses  was  not  merely  a  man  of  genius,  he  was 
also  a  man  of  knowledge  and  learning.  During  forty 
years  he  lived  in  Egypt,  where  all  the  learning  of  the 
world  was  collected ;  and,  being  brought  up  by  the  daugh¬ 
ter  of  Pharaoh  as  her  son,  was  in  the  closest  relations 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


417 

with,  the  priesthood.  The  Egyptian  priests  were  those  to 
whom  Pythagoras,  Herodotus,  and  Plato  went  for  instruc¬ 
tion.  Their  sacred  books,  as  we  have  seen,  taught  the 
doctrine  of  the  unity  and  spirituality  of  God,  of  the  im¬ 
mortality  of  the  soul,  and  its  judgment  in  the  future 
world,  beside  teaching  the  arts  and  sciences.  Moses 
probably  knew  all  that  these  books  could  teach,  and  there 
is  no  doubt  that  he  made  use  of  this  knowledge  after¬ 
ward  in  writing  his  law.  Like  the  Egyptian  priests  he 
believed  in  one  God ;  but,  unlike  them,  he  taught  that 
doctrine  openly.  Like  them  he  established  a  priesthood, 
sacrifices,  festivals,  and  a  temple  service ;  but,  unlike 
them,  he  allowed  no  images  or  idols,  no  visible  represen¬ 
tations  of  the  Unseen  Being,  and  instead  of  mystery  and 
a  hidden  deity  gave  them  revelation  and  a  present,  open 
Deity.  Concerning  the  future  life,  about  which  the  Egyp¬ 
tians  had  so  much  to  say^  Moses  taught  nothing.  His 
rewards  and  punishments  were  inflicted  in  this  world. 
Ketribution,  individual  and  national,  took  place  here. 
As  this  could  not  have  been  from  ignorance  or  accident,  it 
must  have  had  a  purpose,  it  must  have  been  intentional. 
The  silence  of  the  Pentateuch  respecting  immortality 
is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  in  the  Jewish 
religion.  It  has  been  often  objected  to.  It  has  been 
asserted  that  a  religion  without  the  doctrine  of  immor¬ 
tality  and  future  retribution  is  no  religion.  But  in 
our  time  philosophy  takes  a  different  view,  declaring 
that  there  is  nothing  necessarily  religions  in  the  belief 
of  immortality,  and  that  to  do  right  from-  fear  of  future 
punishment  or  hope  of  future  reward  is  selfish,  and 
therefore  irreligious  and  immoral.  Moreover  it  asserts 
that  belief  in  immortality  is  a  matter  of  instinct,  and 
something  to  be  assumed,  not  to  be  proved  ;  and  that 
we  believe  in  immortality  just  in  proportion  as  the  soul 
is  full  of  life.  Therefore,  though  Moses  did  not  teach  the 
doctrine  of  immortality,  he  yet  made  it  necessary  that 
the  Jews  should  believe  in  it  by  the  awakening  influence; 
of  his  law,  which  roused  the  soul  into  the  fullest  activity. 

But  beside  genius,  beside  knowledge,  did'  not  Moses- 
also  possess  that  which  he  claimed,  a  special  inspiration  ?,J 

18*  AA 


418 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


And  if  so,  what  was  his  inspiration  and  what  is  its  evi¬ 
dence  ?  The  evidence  of  his  inspiration  is  in  that  which 
he  said  and  did.  His  inspiration,  like  that  of  Abraham, 
consisted  in  his  inward  vision  of  God,  in  his  sight  of  the 
divine  unity  and  holiness,  in  his  feeling  of  the  personal 
presence  and  power  of  the  Supreme  Being,  in  his  percep¬ 
tion  of  his  will  and  of  his  law.  He  was  inwardly  placed  by 
the  Divine  Providence  where  he  could  see  these  truths,  and 
become  the  medium  of  communicating  them  to  a  nation. 
His  inspiration  was  deeper  than  that  of  the  greatest  of 
subsequent  prophets.  It  was  perhaps  not  so  large,  nor  so 
full,  nor  so  high,  but  it  was  more  entire  ;  and  therefore 
the  power  that  went  forth  from  the  word  and  life  of  Moses 
was  not  surpassed  afterward.  “  There  arose  not  a  prophet 
since  in  Israel  like  unto  Moses,  whom  the  Lord  knew  face 
to  face.”  No  prophet  afterward  till  the  time  of  Jesus  did 
such  a  work  as  he  did.  Purity,  simplicity,  and  strength 
characterized  his  whole  conduct.  His  theology,  his  litur¬ 
gy,  his  moral  code,  and  his  civil  code  were  admirable  in 
their  design  and  their  execution. 

We  are,  indeed,  not  able  to  say  how  much  of  the  Pen¬ 
tateuch  came  from  Moses.  Many  parts  of  it  were  proba¬ 
bly  the  work  of  other  writers  and  of  subsequent  times. 
But  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  essential  ideas  of  the  law 
proceeded  from  him. 

We  have  regarded  Moses  and  his  laws  on  the  side  of 
religion  and  also  on  that  of  morals ;  it  remains  to  con¬ 
sider  them  on  that  of  politics.  What  was  the  form  of 
government  established  by  Moses  ?  Was  it  despotism  or 
freedom  ?  Was  it  monarchy,  aristocracy,  democracy,  or 
republicanism  ?  Were  the  Jews  a  free  people  or  an  en¬ 
slaved  people  ? 

Certainly  the  Jews  were  not  enslaved.  They  had  one 
great  protection  from  despotism,  —  a  constitution.  The 
Mosaic  law  was  their  constitution.  It  was  a  written  con¬ 
stitution,  and  could  therefore  be  appealed  to.  It  was  a 
published  constitution,  and  was  therefore  known  by  all 
the  people.  It  was  a  sacred  constitution,  given  on  the 
authority  of  God,  and  therefore  could  not  be  modified,  ex¬ 
cept  by  the  same  authority.  This  constitution  therefore 


THE  JEWISH  KELIGION. 


419 


was  a  protection  against  despotism.  A  constitution  like 
this  excludes  all  arbitrary  and  despotic  authority.  We 
can  therefore  safely  say  that  the  law  of  Moses  saved  the 
nation  from  despotism.  Thus  he  gave  them  an  important 
element  of  political  freedom.  No  matter  how  oppressive 
laws  are,  a  government  of  fixed  law  involves  in  the  long 
run  much  more  real  freedom  than  the  government,  how¬ 
ever  kind,  which  is  arbitrary,  and  therefore  uncertain  and 
changeable. 

But  were  these  laws  oppressive  ?  Let  us  look  at  them 
in  a  few  obvious  points  of  view. 

What  did  they  exact  in  regard  to  taxation  ?  We  know 
that  in  Eastern  governments  the  people  have  been  ground 
to  the  earth  by  taxation,  and  that  agriculture  has  been 
destroyed,  the  fruitful  field  become  a  wilderness,  and 
populous  countries  depopulated,  by  this  one  form  of  op¬ 
pression.  It  is  because  there  has  been  no  fixed  rate  of 
taxation.  Each  governor  is  allowed  to  take  as  much  as 
he  can  from  his  subordinates,  and  each  of  the  subordi¬ 
nates  as  much  as  he  can  get  from  his  inferiors,  and  so  on, 
till  the  people  are  finally  reached,  out  of  whom  it  must 
all  come.  But  under  the  Mosaic  constitution  the  taxes 
were  fixed  and  certain.  They  consisted  in  a  poll-tax, 
in  the  first-fruits,  and  the  tithes.  The  poll-tax  was  a 
half-shekel  paid  every  year  at  the  Temple,,  by  every  adult 
Jew.  The  first-fruits  were  rather  an  expression  of  grati¬ 
tude  than  a  tax.  The  tithes  were  a  tenth  part  of  the 
annual  produce  of  the  soil,  and  went  for  the  support  of 
the  Levites  and  the  general  expenses  of  the  govern¬ 
ment. 

Another  important  point  relates  to  trials  and  punish¬ 
ments.  What  security  has  one  of  a  fair  trial,  in  case  he 
is  accused  of  crime,  or  what  assurance  of  justice  in  a  civil 
cause  ?  Now  we  know  that  in  Eastern  countries  every¬ 
thing  depends  on  bribery.  This  Moses  forbade  in  his  law. 
“  Thou  shalt  take  no  gift,  for  the  gift  blindeth  the  eyes ; 
thou  shalt  not  wrest  the  judgment  of  the  poor,  but  in 
righteousness  shalt  thou  judge  thy  neighbor.” 

Again,  the  accuser  and  accused  were  to  appear  together 
before  the  judge.  The  witnesses  were  sworn,  and  were 


420 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


examined  separately.  The  people  had  cheap  justice  and 
near  at  hand.  “  J udges  and  officers  shalt  thou  make  thee 
in  all  thy  gates,  throughout  thy  tribes ;  and  they  shall 
judge  the  people  with  just  judgment.” 

There  were  courts  of  appeal  from  these  local  judges. 

There  seems  to  have  been  no  legislative  body,  since  the 
laws  of  Moses  were  not  only  a  constitution  but  also  a 
code.  No  doubt  a  common  law  grew  up  under  the  de¬ 
cisions  of  the  local  courts  and  courts  of  appeal.  But 
provision  was  made  by  Moses  for  any  necessary  amend¬ 
ment  of  his  laws  by  the  reference  which  he  made  to  any 
prophet  like  himself  who  might  afterward  arise,  whom  the 
people  were  to  obey.* 

There  was  no  provision  in  the  Jewish  constitution  for 
a  supreme  executive.  But  the  law  foretold  that  the  time 
would  come  in  which  they  would  desire  a  king,  and  it  de¬ 
fined  his  authority.  He  should  be  a  constitutional  king. 
(Deut.  xvii.  14-20.) 

We  have  already  said  that  one  great  object  and  purpose 
of  the  ceremonial  law  of  Moses  was  to  develop  in  the  minds 
of  the  people  the  idea  of  holiness.  This  is  expressed 
(Lev.  xix.  2),  “  Speak  unto  all  the  congregation  of  the 
children  of  Israel,  and  say  unto  them,  Ye  shall  be  holy ;  for 
I  the  Lord  your  God  am  holy.” 

Another  object  of  the  ceremonial  law  was  to  surround 
the  whole  nation  with  an  impenetrable  hedge  of  peculiar¬ 
ities,  and  so  to  keep  them  separate  from  surrounding  na¬ 
tions.  The  ceremonial  law  was  like  a  shell  which  pro¬ 
tected  the  kernel  within  till  it  was  ripe.  The  ritual  was 
the  thorny  husk,  the  theology  and  morality  were  the  sa¬ 
cred  included  fruit.  In  this  point  of  view  the  strangest 
peculiarities  of  the  ritual  find  an  easy  explanation.  The 
more  strange  they  are,  the  better  they  serve  their  purpose. 
These  peculiarities  produced  bitter  prejudice  between  the 
Jews  and  the  surrounding  nations.  Despised  by  their 
neighbors,  they  despised  them  again  in  turn ;  and  this 

*  A  man  became  a  prophet  only  by  his  powers  of  insight  and  foresight ; 
nntil  that  was  certified  to  the  people,  he  was  no  prophet  to  them.  When 
it  was,  it  was  because  he  convinced  them  by  his  manifestation  of  the 
truth  ;  consequently  any  revision  of  the  law  by  a  prophet  was  a  constitu¬ 
tional  amendment  by  the  people  themselves. 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


421 


mutual  contempt  has  produced  the  result  desired.  The 
Jews,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  world,  surrounded  by  great 
nations  far  more  powerful  than  themselves,  conquered  and 
overrun  by  Assyrians,  Medes,  Persians,  Syrians,  Egyp¬ 
tians,  Greeks,  Romans,  have  been  more  entirely  separated 
from  other  nations  than  the  Chinese  or  the  people  of 
Japan/  Dispersed  as  they  are,  they  are  still  a  distinct 
people,  a  nation  within  other  nations.  Like  drops  of  oil 
floating  on  the  water  but  never  mingling  with  it,  so  the 
Jews  are  found  everywhere,  floating  drops  of  national  life 
in  the  midst  of  other  nationalities.  In  Leviticus  (xviii.  3) 
we  find  the  command,  “  After  the  doings  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  wherein  ye  dwelt,  shall  ye  not  do ;  and  after  the 
doings  of  the  land  of  Canaan,  whither  I  bring  you,  shall  ye 
not  do  ;  neither  shall  ye  walk  in  their  ordinances.”  They 
have  not  obeyed  this  command  in  its  letter,  but  continue 
to  obey  its  spirit  in  its  unwritten  continuation :  “  After 
the  doings  of  the  English  and  French  and  Americans 
shall  ye  not  do,  nor  walk  in  their  ordinances,  but  shall 
still  continue  a  peculiar  people.” 

§  4.  David  ;  or,  Judaism  as  the  'personal  Worship  of  a 

Father  and  Friend . 

Many  disasters  befell  the  Jews  after  their  settlement  in 
Palestine,  which  we  should  allude  to  were  we  writing  the 
heads  of  their  history  rather  than  giving  an  account  of 
their  religion.  Among  these  were  their  long  conflict  with 
the  Philistines,  and  their  subjection  by  that  people  during 
twenty  years.  The  Philistines,  it  has  been  recently  dis¬ 
covered,  were  not  a  Semitic  nation,  and  were  not  in  the 
land  in  the  time  of  Moses.  They  are  not  mentioned  as 
a  powerful  people  in  the  Pentateuch  or  the  Book  of 
Joshua,  but  suddenly  appear  as  invaders  in  the  time  of 
the  Judges,  completely  defeating  and  subduing  the  Ca- 
naanites  along  the  shore.  In  fact,  the  Philistines  were  prob¬ 
ably  an  Indo-European  or  Aryan  people,  and  their  name 
is  now  believed  to  be  the  same  as  that  of  the  Pelasgi. 
They  were  probably  a  body  of  Pelasgi  from  the  island  of 
Crete,  who,  by  successive  invasions,  overran  Palestine,  and 


422 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


gave  their  name  to  it.*  They  were  finally  reduced  by 
David ;  and  as  his  reign  is  the  culminating  period  of 
Judaism,  we  will  devote  some  space  to  his  character  and 
influence. 

The  life  of  David  makes  an  epoch  in  J ewish  history 
and  human  history.  Nations,  like  plants,  have  their 
period  of  flowers  and  of  fruit.  They  have  their  'spring¬ 
time,  their  summer,  autumn,  and  winter.  The  age  of 
David  among  the  Jews  was  like  the  age  of  Pericles  among 
the  Greeks,  of  Augustus  among  the  Eomans,  of  Louis 
XIV.  in  Prance,  of  Charles  Y.  in  Spain.  Such  periods 
separate  themselves  from  those  which  went  before  and 
from  those  which  follow.  The  period  of  David  seems  a 
thousand  years  removed  from  that  of  the  Judges,  and  yet 
it  follows  it  almost  immediately.  As  a  few  weeks  in 
spring  turn  the  brown  earth  to  a  glad  green,  load  the 
trees  with  foliage,  and  fill  the  air  with  the  perfume  of 
blossoms  and  the  song  of  birds,  so  a  few  years  in  the  life 
of  a  nation  will  change  barbarism  into  civilization,  and 
pour  the  light  of  literature  and  knowledge  over  a  sleep¬ 
ing  land.  Arts  flourish,  external  enemies  are  conquered, 
inward  discontents  are  pacified,  wealth  pours  in,  luxury 
increases,  genius  accomplishes  its  triumphs.  Summer, 
with  its  flowers  and  fruits,  has  arrived. 

When  a  nation  is  ripe  for  such  a  change,  the  advent  of 
a  man  of  genius  will  accomplish  it.  Around  him  the  par¬ 
ticles  crystallize  and  take  form  and  beauty.  Such  a  man 
was  David,  —  a  brave  soldier,  a  great  captain,  a  sagacious 
adventurer,  an  artist,  musician,  and  poet,  a  man  of  pro¬ 
found  religious  experience ;  he  was,  more  than  all  these, 
a  statesman.  By  his  great  organizing  ability  he  made  a 
powerful  nation  out  of  that  which,  when  he  came  to  the 
throne,  consisted  of  a  few  discordant  and  half-conquered 
tribes.  In  the  time  of  Saul  the  Israelites  were  invaded 
by  all  the*  surrounding  nations  ;  by  the  Syrians  on  the 
north,  the  Ammonites  and  Moabites  on  the  east,  the 

*  Hitzig,  Urgeschichte  mid  Mytliologie  der  Philister.  Tacitus  proba¬ 
bly  referred  to  the  Cretan  origin  of  the  Philistines,  when  he  says  that  the 
Jews  were  originally  natives  of  the  island  of  Crete.  See  his  account  of 
Moses  and  his  institutions,  Historia,  V.  1-6. 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


423 


Amalekites  and  Edomites  on  the  south,  and  the  Philis¬ 
tines  on  the  west.  In  the  time  of  David  all  these  nations 
were  completely  subdued,  their  cities  garrisoned,  and  the 
power  of  the  Israelites  submitted  to  from  the  Euphrates 
to  the  Mediterranean. 

Most  great  men  are  contented  to  be  distinguished  in 
one  thing,  and  to  lead  a  single  life ;  but  David  led  three 
lives,  each  distinct  from  the  other,  —  the  life  of  a  soldier 
and  statesman,  the  life  of  a  poet  and  artist,  the  life  of 
deep  religious  experience.  We  will  look  at  his  character 
in  each  of  these  three  directions. 

We  have  already  said  that  David  found  the  Israelites 
divided  and  half  conquered,  and  left  them  united  and 
conquerors.  By  means  of  his  personal  qualities  he  had 
made  himself  popular  among  the  tribes.  He  was  known 
as  a  brave  and  cautious  guerilla  chief.  His  native  gen¬ 
erosity  and  open-heartedness  won  him  the  love  of  the 
people.  His  religious  tendencies  gained  for  him  the 
friendship  of  the  priests,  and  the  great  influence  of 
Samuel  was  always  exerted  in  his  favor.  He  was  thus 
enabled  to  unite  the  people,  and  gain  their  confidence  till 
he  could  make  use  of  them  in  larger  enterprises.  The 
Jews  were  not  naturally  a  military  nation,  and  were  never 
meant  to  be  such.  Yet  when  their  strength  was  united 
they  were  capable,  by  their  determination  and  tenacity  of 
purpose,  of  extraordinary  military  exploits.  Everything 
depended  on  their  morale.  Demoralized  and  weakened 
by  doubts  and  scruples,  or  when  conscious  that  they  were 
disobeying  the  laws  of  Moses,  they  were  easily  defeated  by 
any  invader.  The  first  duty  of  their  general  was  to  bring 
them  back  from  their  idolatries  and  backslidings  to  the 
service  of  God.  Under  Joshua  it  only  needed  two  great 
battles  to  conquer  the  whole  land  of  Palestine.  So,  re¬ 
united  under  David,  a  few  campaigns  made  them  victo¬ 
rious  over  the  surrounding  nations. 

The  early  part  of  David’s  life  was  a  perpetual  disci¬ 
pline  in  prudence.  He  was  continually  beset  with  dan¬ 
gers.  He  had  to  fly  from  the  presence  and  ferocious 
jealousy  of  Saul  again  and  again,  and  even  to  take  refuge 
with  the  Philistines,  who  had  reason  enough  to  be  Ills 


424 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


enemies.  He  fled  from  Saul  to  Samuel,  and  took  shelter 
under  his  protection.  Pursued  to  this  retreat  by  the 
king,  he  had  no  resource  hut  to  throw  himself  on  the 
mercy  of  the  Philistines,  and  he  went  to  Gath.  When 
he  saw  himself  in  danger  there,  he  pretended  to  be  in¬ 
sane  ;  insanity  being  throughout  the  East  a  protection 
from  injury.  His  next  step  was  to  go  to  the  cave  Adul- 
lam,  and  to  collect  around  him  a  body  of  partisans,  with 
whom  to  protect  himself.  Saul  watched  his  opportunity, 
and  when  David  had  left  the  fastnesses  of  the  mountain, 
and  came  into  the  city  Keilah  to  defend  it  from  the 
Philistines,  Saul  went  down  with  a  detachment  of  troops 
to  besiege  him,  so  that  lie  had  to  fly  again  to  the  moun¬ 
tains.  Betrayed  by  the  Zipliites,  as  he  had  been  before 
betrayed  by  the  men  of  Keilah,  he  went  to  another  wil¬ 
derness  and  escaped.  The  king  continued  to  pursue  him 
whenever  he  could  get  any  tidings  of  his  position,  and 
again  David  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  among  the  Philis¬ 
tines.  But  throughout  this  whole  period  he  never  per¬ 
mitted  himself  any  hostile  measures  against  Saul,  his  im¬ 
placable  enemy.  In  this  he  showed  great  wisdom,  for  the 
result  of  such  a  course  would  have  been  a  civil  war,  in 
which  part  of  the  nation  would  have  taken  sides  with 
one  and  part  with  the  other,  and  David  never  could  have 
ascended  the  throne  with  the  consent  of  the  whole  people. 
But  the  consequence  of  his  forbearance  was,  that  when 
by  the  death  of  Saul  the  throne  became  vacant,  David 
succeeded  to  it  with  scarcely  any  opposition.  His  subse¬ 
quent  course  showed  always  the  same  prudence.  He 
disarmed  his  enemies  by  kindness  and  clemency.  He 
understood  the  policy  of  making  a  bridge  of  gold  for  a 
flying  enemy.  When  Abner,  the  most  influential  man  of 
his  opponents,  offered  to  submit  to  him,  David  received 
him  with  kindness  and  made  him  a  friend.  And  when 
Abner  was  treacherously  killed  by  Joab,  David  publicly 
mourned  for  him,  following  the  bier,  and  weeping  at  the 
grave.  The  historian  says  concerning  this  :  “  And  all  the 
people  took  notice  of  it  and  it  pleased  them  :  as  what¬ 
soever  the  king  did  pleased  all  the  people.  Eor  all  the 
people  understood  that  day  that  it  was  not  of  the  king  to 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


425 


slay  Abner  the  son  of  Ner.”  His  policy  was  to  conciliate 
and  unite.  When  Saul’s  son  was  slain  by  his  own  ser¬ 
vants,  who  thought  to  please  David  by  that  act,  he  imme¬ 
diately  put  them  to  death.  Equally  cautious  and  judi¬ 
cious  was  his  course  in  transferring  the  Ark  and  its 
worship  to  Jerusalem.  He  did  this  only  gradually,  and  as 
he  saw  that  the  people  were  prepared  for  it. 

We  next  will  look  at  David  in  his  character  as  man  of 
genius,  musician,  artist,  poet.  It  is  not  often  that  an  emi¬ 
nent  statesman  and  soldier  is,  at  the  same  time,  a  distin¬ 
guished  poet  and  writer.  Sometimes  they  can  write  his¬ 
tory  or  annals,  like  C£esar  and  Frederick  the  Great ;  but  the 
imaginative  and  poetic  element  is  rarely  found  connected 
with  the  determined  will  and  practical  intellect  of  a  great 
commander.  Alexander  the  Great  had  a  taste  for  good 
poetry,  for  he  carried  Homer  with  him  through  his  cam¬ 
paigns  ;  but  the  taste  of  Napoleon  went  no  higher  than  a 
liking  for  Ossian. 

But  David  was  a  poet,  in  whom  the  tender,  lyrical, 
personal  element  rose  to  the  highest  point.  The  daring 
soldier,  when  he  took  his  harp,  became  another  man.  He 
consoled  himself  and  sought  comfort  in  trial,  and  sang 
his  thankfulness  in  his  hours  of  joy.  The  Book  of 
Psalms,  so  far  as  it  is  the  work  of  David,  is  the  record 
of  his  life.  As  Horace  says  of  Lucilius  and  his  book  of 
Odes,  that  the  whole  of  the  old  man’s  life  hangs  sus¬ 
pended  therein  in  votive  pictures ;  and  as  Goethe  says 
that  his  Lyrics  are  a  book  of  confessions,  in  which  joy 
and  sorrow  turn  to  song ;  so  the  Book  of  Psalms  can  only 
be  understood  when  we  consider  it  as  David’s  poetical 
autobiography.  In  this  he  anticipates  the  Koran,  which 
'  was  the  private  journal  of  Mohammed. 

“  The  harp  of  David,”  says  Herder,  “  was  his  comforter 
and  friend.  In  his  youth  he  sang  to  its  music  while 
tending  his  flocks  as  a  shepherd  on  the  mountains  of 
Judsea.  By  its  means  he  had  access  to  Saul,  and  could 
sooth  with  it  the  dark  mood  of  the  king.  In  his  days  of 
exile  he  confided  to  it  his  sorrows.  When  he  triumphed 
over  his  enemies  the  harp  became  in  his  royal  hands  a 
thank-offering  to  the  deity.  Afterward  he  organized  on 


426 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


a  magnificent  scale  music  and  poetry  in  the  worship  of 
God.  Four  thousand  Levites,  distinguished  by  a  peculiar 
dress,  were  arranged  in  classes  and  choirs  under  master- 
singers,  of  whom  the  three  most  distinguished,  Asaph, 
Hernan,  and  Jeduthun,  are  known  to  us  by  specimens  of 
their  art.  In  his  Psalms  his  whole  kingdom  lives.” 

We  speak  of  the  inspiration  of  genius,  and  distinguish 
it  from  the  inspiration  of  the  religious  teacher.  But  in 
ancient  times  the  prophet  and  poet  were  often  the  same, 
and  one  word  (as,  in  Latin,  “  vates  ”)  was  used  for  both. 
In  the  case  of  David  the  two  inspirations  were  perfectly 
at  one.  His  religion  was  poetry,  and  his  poetry  was  re¬ 
ligion.  The  genius  of  his  poetry  is  not  grandeur,  but 
beauty.  Sometimes  it  expresses  a  single  thought  or  sen¬ 
timent,  as  that  (Psalm  cxxxiii.)  describing  the  beauty  of 
brotherly  union,  or  as  that  (Psalm  xxiii.)  which  paints 
trust  in  God  like  that  of  a  sheep  in  his  shepherd.  Of 
the  same  sort  is  the  fifteenth  Psalm,  “Lord,  who  shall 
abide  in  thy  tabernacle  ?  ”  the  twenty-ninth,  a  description 
of  a  thunderstorm  ;  the  sixty-seventh,  “  0  God,  be  merci¬ 
ful  to  us  and  bless  us  ”  ;  the  eighty-fourth,  “  How  lovely 
are  thy  tabernacles  ”  ;  and  the  last  Psalm,  calling  on  man¬ 
kind  to  praise  God  in  all  ways. 

It  is  a  striking  fact  that  these  Hebrew  lyrics,  written 
long  before  the  foundation  of  Rome,  and  before  the  time 
of  Homer,  should  be  used  to-day  in  Christian  worship  and 
for  private  devotion  all  over  the  world. 

In  speaking  of  the  Vedas  and  the  Avesta  we  said  that 
in  such  hymns  and  liturgies  the  truest  belief  of  a  nation 
can  be  found.  What  men  say  to  God  in  their  prayers 
may  be  assumed  to  express  their  practical  convictions. 
The  Jewish  religion  is  not  to  be  found  so  surely  in  its 
Levitical  code  as  in  these  national  lyrics,  which  were  the 
liturgy  of  the  people.* 

*  “  Out  from  the  heart  of  nature  rolled 
The  burdens  of  the  Bible  old  ; 

The  litanies  of  nations  came, 

Like  the  volcano’s  tongue  of  flame, 

Up  from  the  burning  core  below,  — - 
The  canticles  of  love  and  woe.” 

Emerson,  The  Problem. 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


427 


Wlmt  then  do  they  say  concerning  God  ?  They  teach 
his  universal  dominion.  They  declare  that  none  in  the 
heaven  can  be  compared  to  him  (Psalm  lxxxix.) ;  that  he 
is  to  he  feared  above  all  gods  (Psalm  xcvi.).  They  teach 
his  eternity ;  declaring  that  he  is  God  from  everlasting 
to  everlasting ;  that  a  thousand  years  in  his  sight  are  as 
yesterday ;  that  he  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth  and 
made  the  heavens,  and  that  when  these  perish  he  will  en¬ 
dure  ;  that  at  some  period  they  shall  be  changed  like  a 
garment,  but  that  God  will  always  be  the  same  (Psalm 
xc.j  cii.).  They  teach  in  numerous  places  that  God  is  the 
Creator  of  all  things.  They  adore  and  bless  his  fatherly 
love  and  kindness,  which  heals  all  our  diseases  and  re¬ 
deems  our  life,  crowning  us  with  loving-kindness,  pitying 
us,  and  forgiving  our  sins  (Psalm  ciii.).  They  teach  that 
he  is  in  all  nature  (Psalm  civ.),  that  he  searches  and 
knows  all  our  thoughts,  and  that  we  can  go  nowhere  from 
his  presence  (Psalm  cxxxix.).  They  declare  that  he  pro¬ 
tects  all  who  trust  in  him  (Psalm  xci.,  cxxi.),  and  that 
he  purifies  the  heart  and  life  (Psalm  cxix.),  creating  in 
us  a  clean  heart,  and  not  asking  for  sacrifice,  but  for  a 
broken  spirit  (Psalm  li.). 

These  Psalms  express  the  highest  and  best  moments 
of  Jewish  life,  and  rise  in  certain  points  to  the  level  of 
Christianity.  They  do  not  contain  the  Christian  spirit  of 
forgiveness,  nor  that  of  love  to  one’s  enemy.  They  are 
still  narrowed  to  the  range  of  the  J ewish  land  and  nation, 
and  do  not  embrace  humanity.  They  are  mountain  sum¬ 
mits  of  faith,  rising  into  the  pure  air  and  light  of  day 
from  hidden  depths,  and  appearing  as  islands  in  the  ocean. 
They  reach,  here  and  there,  the  level  of  the  vast  continent, 
though  not  broad  enough  themselves  to  become  the  home 
of  all  races  and  nations. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  Yedas,  nothing  in  the  Avesta, 
nothing  in  the  sacred  books  of  Egypt,  or  the  philosophy 
of  Greece  and  Eome,  which  so  unites  the  grandeur  of 
omnipotence  with  the  tenderness  of  a  father  toward  his 
child. 


428 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


§  5.  Solomon  ;  or,  the  Religious  Relapse. 

We  liave  seen  how  the  religion  of  Abraham,  as  the 
family  worship  of  the  Supreme  Being,  was  developed  into 
that  of  Moses,  as  the  national  worship  of  a  just  and  holy 
King.  We  have  seen  it  going  onward  from  that,  ascend¬ 
ing  in  the  inspirations  of  David  into  trust  in  an  infinite 
God  as  a  friend,  and  love  to  him  as  a  father.  We  now 
come  to  a  period  of  relapse.  Under  Solomon  and  his 
successors,  this  religion  became  corrupted  and  degraded. 
Its  faith  was  changed  into  doubt,  its  lofty  courage  into  the 
fear  of  kings  and  tyrants,  its  worship  of  the  Most  High 
into  adoration  of  the  idols  of  its  neighbors.  The  great 
increase  of  power  and  wealth  in  the  hands  of  Solomon 
corrupted  his  own  heart  and  that  of  his  people.  Luxury 
came  in ;  and,  as  in  Rome  the  old  puritanic  virtues  were 
dissolved  by  the  desire  for  wealth  and  pleasure,  so  it  hap¬ 
pened  among  the  Jews.  Then  came  the  retribution,  in 
the  long  captivity  in  Babylon,  and  the  beginning  of  a 
new  and  better  life  under  this  hard  discipline.  And 
then  comes  the  age  of  the  Prophets,  who  gradually  be¬ 
came  the  teachers  of  a  higher  and  broader  faith.  So, 
when  the  Jews  returned  to  Jerusalem,  they  came  back 
purified,  and  prepared  to  become  once  more  loyal  subjects 
of  Jehovah. 

The  principle  of  hereditary  succession,  but  not  of  pri¬ 
mogeniture,  had  been  established  by  an  agreement  be¬ 
tween  David  and  the  people  when  he  proposed  erecting  a 
Temple  at  J erusalem.  He  had  appointed  his  son  Solomon 
as  his  successor  before  his  own  death.  With  the  entrance 
of  Solomon  we  have  an  entirely  different  personality  from 
any  whom  we  have  thus  far  met.  With  him  also  is  in¬ 
augurated  a  new  period  and  a  different  age.  The  age  of 
Moses  was  distinguished  as  that  of  law,  —  on  the  side 
of  God  absolute  authority,  commanding  and  forbidding ; 
on  the  side  of  man  the  only  question  was  between 
obedience  and  disobedience.  Moses  was  the  Law-giver, 
and  his  age  was  the  age  of  law.  In  the  time  of  the 
Judges  the  question  concerned  national  existence  and 
national  independence.  The  age  of  the  Judges  was  the 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


429 


heroic  age  of  the  Jewish  nation.  The  Judges  w7ere  men 
combining  religious  faith  with  patriotism ;  they  were  relig¬ 
ious  heroes.  Then  came  the  time  of  David,  in  which  the 
nation,  having  become  independent,  became  also  power¬ 
ful  and  wealthy.  After  his  time  the  religion,  instead  of 
being  a  law  to  be  obeyed  or  an  impulse  to  action,  became 
ceremony  and  pageant.  Going  one  step  further,  it  passed 
into  reflection  and  meditation.  In  the  age  of  Solomon  the 
inspiration  of  the  national  religion  had  already  gone.  A 
great  intellectual  development  had  taken  the  place  of 
inspiration.  So  that  the  Jewish  nation  seems  to  have 
passed  through  a  fourfold  religious  experience.  Religion 
was  first  law,  then  action,  next  inspiration  and  sentiment, 
afterward  ceremony,  and  lastly  opinion  and  intellectual 
culture. 

It  is  the  belief  of  Herder  and  other  scholars  that  the 
age  of  Solomon  gave  birth  to  a  copious  literature,  born  of 
peace,  tranquillity,  and  prosperity,  which  has  all  passed 
away  except  a  few  Psalms,  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  Ecclesias¬ 
tes,  and  the  Song  of  Solomon. 

Solomon  is  personally  a  much  less  interesting  character 
than  David ;  for  policy  is  never  so  interesting  as  impulse, 
and  the  crimes  of  policy  seem  worse  than  those  of  passion. 
The  first  act  of  Solomon  was  of  this  sort.  He  put  his 
brother  Adonijah  to  death  for  his  attempt  to  seize  the 
throne.  Joab,  who  supported  Adonijah  against  Solomon, 
was  also  put  to  death,  for  which  we  do  not  grieve,  when 
we  remember  his  assassination  of  Abner  and  Amasa, 
shedding  the  blood  of  war  in  peace.  But  the  cold,  un¬ 
scrupulous  character  of  Solomon  is  seen  in  his  ordering 
Joab  to  be  slain  in  the  tabernacle  while  holding  the  horns 
of  the  altar,  and  causing  Adonijah  to  be  taken  by  force 
from  the  same  place  of  refuge.  ISTo  religious  consideration 
or  superstitious  fear  could  prevent  Solomon  from  doing 
what  he  thought  necessary  for  his  own  security.  He  had 
given  Adonijah  a  conditional  pardon,  limited  to  good  be¬ 
havior  on  his  part.  But  after  his  establishment  on  the 
throne  Adonijah  requested  the  mother  of  Solomon,  Bath- 
sheba,  to  ask  her  son  to  give  him  for  a  wife  the  beautiful 
Abishag,  the  last  wife  of  David.  Solomon  understood 


430 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


this  to  mean,  what  his  mother  did  not  understand,  that 
his  brother  was  still  intriguing  to  supplant  him  on  the 
throne,  and  with  cool  policy  he  ordered  him  to  imme¬ 
diate  execution.  Solomon  could  pardon  a  criminal,  but 
not  a  dangerous  rival.  He  deposed  the  high-priest  for 
the  same  reason,  considering  him  to  be  also  dangerous. 
Shimei,  who  seems  to  have  been  wealthy  and  influential 
as  well  as  a  determined  character,  was  ordered  not  to 
leave  Jerusalem  under  penalty  of  death.  He  did  so,  and 
Solomon  put  him  to  death.  David,  before  his  death,  had 
warned  Solomon  to  keep  an  eye  both  on  Joab  and  on 
Shimei,  for  David  could  forgive  his  own  enemies,  but  not 
those  of  his  cause  ;  he  was  not  afraid  on  his  own  account, 
but  was  afraid  for  the  safety  of  his  son. 

By  the  death  of  J oab  and  Shimei,  Solomon’s  kingdom 
was  established,  and  the  glory  and  power  of  David  was 
carried  to  a  still  higher  point  of  magnificence.  Supported 
by  the  prophets  on  the  one  hand  and  by  the  priests  on  the 
other,  his  authority  was  almost  unlimited.  We  are  told 
that  “  Judah  and  Israel  were  many,  as  the  sand  which  is 
by  the  sea  in  multitude,  eating  and  drinking  and  making 
merry.  And  Solomon  reigned  over  all  kingdoms  from  the 
river  unto  the  land  of  the  Philistines,  and  unto  the  border 
of  Egypt ;  they  brought  presents,  and  served  Solomon  all 
the  days  of  his  life.  And  Solomon’s  provision  for  one  day 
was  thirty  measures  of  fine  flour,  and  threescore  measures 
of  meal,  ten  fat  oxen,  and  twenty  oxen  out  of  the  pastures, 
and  an  hundred  sheep,  beside  harts,  and  roebucks,  and  fal¬ 
low  deer,  and  fatted  fowl.”  The  wars  of  David  were  ended. 
Solomon’s  was  a  reign  of  peace.  “  And  Judah  and  Israel 
dwelt  safely,  every  man  under  his  vine  and  under  his  fig- 
tree,  from  Dan  even  to  Beersheba,  all  the  days  of  Solomon. 
And  Solomon  had  forty  thousand  stalls  of  horses  for  his 
chariots,  and  twelve  thousand  horsemen.”  “  And  God 
gave  Solomon  wisdom  and  understanding  exceeding  much, 
and  largeness  of  heart,  even  as  the  sand  that  is  on  the 
sea-shore.  And  Solomon’s  wisdom  excelled  the  wisdom  of 
all  the  children  of  the  east  country,  and  all  the  wisdom 
of  Egypt.  For  he  was  wiser  than  all  men ;  than  Ethan 
the  Ezrahite,  and  Heman,  and  Clialcol,  and  Darda,  the  sons 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


431 


of  Maliol ;  and  his  fame  was  in  all  nations  round  about.” 
“And  there  came  of  all  people  to  hear  the  wisdom  of 
Solomon,  from  all  kings  of  the  earth,  which  had  heard  of 
his  wisdom.”  The  great  power  and  wealth  of  the  Jewish 
court  at  this  period  are  historically  verified  by  the  tradi¬ 
tions  still  extant  among  the  Arabs  of  Solomon’s  super¬ 
human  splendor. 

The  story  (1  Kings  iii.  5)  of  Solomon’s  dream,  in  which 
he  chose  an  understanding  heart  and  wisdom,  rather  than 
riches  and  honor,  reminds  us  of  the  choice  of  Hercules. 
It  is  not  unlikely  that  he  had  such  a  dream,  it  is  quite 
probable  that  he  always  preferred  wisdom  to  anything 
else,  and  it  is  certain  that  his  wisdom  came  from  God. 
This  is  the  only  connection  we  can  trace  between  the 
dream  and  its  fulfilment. 

Solomon  inaugurated  a  new  policy  by  entering  into 
alliances  and  making  treaties  with  his  powerful  neigh¬ 
bors.  He  formed  an  alliance  with  the  king  of  Egypt,  and 
married  his  daughter.  He  also  made  a  treaty  of  com¬ 
merce  and  friendship  with  the  king  of  Tyre  on  the  north, 
and  procured  from  him  cedar  with  which  to  build  the 
Temple  and  his  own  palace.  He  received  an  embassy  also 
from  the  queen  of  Sheba,  who  resided  in  the  south  of 
Arabia.  By  means  of  the  Tyrian  ships  he  traded  to  the 
west  as  far  as  the  coasts  of  Spain  and  Africa,  and  his  own 
vessels  made  a  coasting  voyage  of  three  years’  duration  to 
Tarshisli,  from  which  they  brought  ivory,  gold,  silver,  apes, 
and  peacocks.  This  voyage  seems  to  have  been  through 
the  Bed  Sea  to  India.*  He  also  traded  in  Asia,  over¬ 
land,  with  caravans.  And  for  their  accommodation  and 
defence  he  built  Tadrnor  in  the  desert  (afterward  called 
Palmyra),  as  a  great  stopping-place.  This  city  in  later 
days  became  famous  as  the  capital  of  Zenobia,  and  the 
remains  of  the  Temple  of  the  Sun,  standing  by  itself  in 
the  midst  of  the  Great  Desert,  are  among  the  most  in¬ 
teresting  ruins  in  the  world.j* 

*  See  this  point  fully  discussed  in  Ritter,  Palestine  (Am.  ed.),  Yol.  I. 
pp.  81-151. 

+  See  Weil,  Biblical  Legends,  for  the  Mohammedan  traditions  eon* 
cerning  Solomon. 


432 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  great  work  of  Solomon  was  building  the  Temple 
at  Jerusalem  in  the  year  B.  c.  1005.  This  Temple  was 
destroyed,  and  rebuilt  by  Nehemiah  B.  c.  445.  It  was 
rebuilt  by  Herod  B.  c.  17.  Little  remains  from  the  time 
of  Solomon,  except  some  stones  in  the  walls  of  the  sub¬ 
structions  ;  and  the  mosque  of  Omar  now  stands  on 
the  old  foundation.  No  building  of  antiquity  so  much 
resembles  the  Temple  of  Solomon  as  the  palace  of  Darius 
at  Persepolis.  In  both  buildings  the  porch  opened  into 
the  large  hall,  both  had  small  chambers  on  the  side, 
square  masses  on  both  sides  of  the  porch,  and  the  same 
form  of  pillars.  The  parts  of  Solomon’s  Temple  were, 
first,  a  porch  thirty  feet  wide  and  fifteen  feet  deep  ;  second 
a  large  hall  sixty  by  thirty ;  and  then  the  holy  of  holies, 
which  was  thirty  feet  cube.  The  whole  external  dimen¬ 
sions  of  the  building  were  only  sixty  feet  by  one  hundred 
and  twenty,  or  less  than  many  an  ordinary  parish  church. 
The  explanation  is  that  it  was  copied  from  the  Tabernacle, 
which  was  a  small  building,  and  was  necessarily  somewhat 
related  to  it  in  size.  The  walls  wTere  of  stone,  on  exten¬ 
sive  stone  foundations.  Inside  it  was  lined  with  cedar, 
with  floors  of  cypress,  highly  ornamented  with  carvings 
and  gold.  The  brass  work  consisted  of  two  ornamented 
pillars  called  Jachin  and  Boaz,  a  brazen  tank  supported 
by  twelve  brass  oxen,  and  ten  baths  of  brass,  ornamented 
with  figures  of  lions,  oxen,  and  cherubim. 

The  Book  of  Kings  says  of  Solomon  (1  Kings  iv.  32) 
that  “  he  spake  three  thousand  proverbs,  and  his  songs 
were  a  thousand  and  five.  And  he  spake  of  trees,  from  the 
cedar-tree  that  is  in  Lebanon  even  unto  the  hyssop  that 
springeth  out  of  the  wall :  he  spake  also  of  beasts,  and 
of  fowl  and  of  creeping  things,  and  of  fishes.”  He  was, 
according  to  this  account,  a  voluminous  writer  on  natural 
history,  as  well  as  an  eminent  poet  and  moralist.  Of  all 
his  compositions  there  remains  but  one,  the  Book  of  Prov¬ 
erbs,  which  was  probably  in  great  part  composed  by 
him.  It  is  true  that  three  books  in  the  Old  Testament 
bear  his  name,  —  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  and  the  Song  of 
Songs.  But  of  these  Ecclesiastes  was  probably  written 
afterward,  and  though  the  Song  of  Songs  may  have  been 


THE  JEWISH  KELIGION. 


433 


written  by  Solomon,  it  was  probably  the  work  of  another, 
living  at  or  near  his  time. 

But  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs  there  cannot  be  much 
doubt.  It  contains  some  of  the  three  thousand  of  which 
Solomon  was  the  reputed  author.  It  shows  his  style  of 
mind  very  clearly,  —  the  cool  understanding,  the  calculat¬ 
ing  prudence,  the  continual  reference  to  results,  knowledge 
of  the  world  as  distinguished  from  knowledge  of  human 
nature,  or  of  individual  character.  The  Book  of  Proverbs 
contains  little  heroism  or  poetry,  few  large  ideas,  not  much 
enthusiasm  or  sentiment.  It  is  emphatically  a  book  of 
wisdom.  It  has  good,  hard,  practical  sense.  It  is  the 
“  Poor  Richard’s  Almanac  ”  of  Hebrew  literature.  We  can 
conceive  of  King  Solomon  and  Benjamin  Franklin  con¬ 
sulting  together,  and  comparing  notes  of  their  observa¬ 
tions  on  human  life,  with  much  mutual  satisfaction.  It 
is  curious  to  meet  with  such  a  thoroughly  Western  intel¬ 
lect,  a  thousand  years  before  Christ,  on  the  throne  of  the 
heroic  David. 

Among  these  proverbs  there  are  many  of  a  kindly 
character.  Some  are  semi-Christian  in  their  wise  benevo¬ 
lence.  Many  show  great  shrewdness  of  observation,  and 
have  an  epigrammatic  wit.  We  will  give  examples  of 
each  kind :  — 

PROVERBS  HAVING  A  SEMI-CHRISTIAN  CHARACTER. 

“If  thine  enemy  he  hungry,  give  him  bread  ; 

If  thirsty,  give  him  water  to  drink, 

For  thou  wilt  heap  coals  of  fire  on  his  head, 

And  Jehovah  will  reward  thee.” 

“To  deliver  those  that  are  dragged  to  death, 

Those  that  totter  to  the  slaughter, 

Spare  thyself  not. 

If  thou  sayest,  Behold,  we  knew  it  not, 

Doth  not  He  that  weighs  the  heart  observe  it  ? 

Yea,  He  that  keeps  thy  soul  knows  it. 

And  He  will  render  to  every  man  according  to  his  works.”,! 

“Put  not  thyself  forth  in  the  presence  of  the  king, 

Nor  station  thyself  in  the  place  of  great  men. 

Far  better  it  is  that  one  should  say  to  thee, 

Come  up  hither  ! 

Than  that  he  should  put  thee  in  a  lower  place, 

In  the  presence  of  the  prince.” 

19 


BB 


434 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


“The  lip  of  truth  shall  be  established  forever, 

But  the  tongue  of  falsehood  is  but  for  a  moment.” 

PROVERBS  SHOWING  SHREWDNESS  OF  OBSERVATION. 

“  As  one  that  takes  a  dog  by  the  ears, 

So  is  he  that  passing  by  becomes  enraged  on  account  of  another’s  quarreL" 

“  Where  there  is  no  wood  the  fire  goes  out ; 

So  where  there  is  no  talebearer  contention  ceases.” 

“  The  rich  rules  over  the  poor, 

And  the  borrower  is  servant  to  the  lender.” 

“  The  slothful  man  says,  There  is  a  lion  without, 

I  shall  be  slain  in  the  streets.” 

/ 

“  A  reproof  penetrates  deeper  into  a  wise  man 
Than  a  hundred  stripes  into  a  fool.” 

“  Hope  deferred  makes  the  heart  sick.” 

“  The  way  of  transgressors  is  hard.”  * 

“There  is  that  scatters,  and  yet  increases.” 

“  It  is  naught,  it  is  naught,  saith  the  buyer, 

But  when  he  goeth  his  way  then  he  boasteth.” 

PROVERBS  WITTILY  EXPRESSED. 

“  The  legs  of  a  lame  man  are  not  equal, 

So  is  a  proverb  in  the  mouth  of  fools.”  * 

“  As  a  thorn  runs  into  the  hand  of  a  drunkard, 

So  is  a  proverb  in  the  mouth  of  a  fool.’’+ 

“  As  clouds  and  wind  without  rain, 

So  is  a  man  who  boasts  falsely  of  giving.” 

“  A  soft  tongue  breaks  bones.” 

“  As  vinegar  to  the  teeth,  and  smoke  to  the  eyes, 

So  is  the  sluggard  to  him  that  sends  him.” 

“  The  destruction  of  the  poor  is  their  poverty.” 

“  A  merry  heart  is  a  good  medicine.” 

But  what  are  human  wisdom  and  glory  ?  It  seems  that 
Solomon  was  to  illustrate  its  emptiness.  See  the  king, 
in  his  old  age,  sinking  into  idolatry  and  empty  luxury, 

*  For  he  perceives  the  idea,  but  not  its  application  to  himself. 

+  Neither  of  them  perceives  that  he  is  the  object  of  the  injury. 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


435 


falling  away  from  liis  God,  and  pointing  the  moral  of  his 
own  proverbs.  He  himself  was  the  drunkard,  into 
whose  hand  the  thorn  of  the  proverb  penetrated,  without 
his  heeding  it.  This  prudent  and  wise  king,  who  under¬ 
stood  so  well  all  the  snares  of  temptation  and  all  the 
arts  of  virtue,  fell  like  the  puppet  of  any  Asiatic  court. 
What  a  contrast  between  the  wise  and  great  king  as  de¬ 
scribed  in  1  Kings  iv.  20  -  34  and  the  same  king  in  his 
degenerate  old  age ! 

It  was  this  last  period  in  the  life  of  Solomon  which 
the  writer  of  Ecclesiastes  took  as  the  scene  and  subject  of 
his  story.  With  marvellous  penetration  and  consummate 
power  he  penetrates  the  mind  of  Solomon  and  paints  the 
blackness  of  desolation,  the  misery  of  satiety,  the  dread¬ 
ful  darkness  of  a  soul  which  has  given  itself  to  this  world 
as  its  only  sphere. 

Never  was  such  a  picture  painted  of  utter  scepticism, 
of  a  mind  wholly  darkened,  and  without  any  remaining 
faith  in  God  or  truth. 

These  three  books  mark  the  three  periods  of  the  life 
of  Solomon. 

The  Song  of  Songs  shows  us  his  abounding  youth, 
full  of  poetry,  fire,  and  charm. 

The  Proverbs  give  his  ripened  manhood,  wise  and 
full  of  all  earthly  knowledge,  —  Aristotle,  Bacon,  Socrates, 
and  Franklin,  all  in  one. 

And  Ecclesiastes  represents  the  darkened  and  gloomy 
scepticism  of  his  old  age,  when  he  sank  as  low  down  as 
he  had  before  gone  up.  But  though  so  sad  and  dark,  yet 
it  is  not  without  gleams  of  a  higher  and  nobler  joy  to 
come.  Better  than  anything  in  Proverbs  are  some  of  the 
noble  sentiments  breaking  out  in  Ecclesiastes,  especially 
at  the  end  of  the  book. 

The  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  is  a  wonderful  description  of 
a  doubt  so  deep,  a  despair  so  black,  that  nothing  in  all 
literature  can  be  compared  to  it.  It  describes,  in  the  per¬ 
son  of  Solomon,  utter  scepticism  born  of  unlimited  world¬ 
ly  enjoyment,  knowledge,  and  power. 


436 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  book  begins  by  declaring  that  all  is  vanity,  that 
there  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun,  no  progress  in  any 
direction,  but  all  things  revolving  in  an  endless  circle, 
so  that  there  is  neither  meaning  nor  use  in  the  world.* 
It  declares  that  work  amounts  to  nothing,  for  one  can¬ 
not  do  any  really  good  thing ;  that  knowledge  is  of  no 
use,  but  only  produces  sorrow ;  that  pleasure  satiates.*)* § 
Knowledge  has  only  this  advantage  over  ignorance,  that 
it  enables  us  to  see  things  as  they  are,  but  it  does  not 
make  them  better,  and  the  end  of  all  is  despair,  j  Sen¬ 
sual  pleasure  is  the  only  good.  §  Fate  and  necessity  rule 
all  things.  Good  and  evil  both  come  at  their  appointed 
time.  Men  are  cheated  and  do  not  see  the  nullity  of 
things,  because  they  have  the  world  in  their  heart,  and 
are  absorbed  in  the  present  moment.  || 

Men  are  only  a  higher  class  of  beasts.  They  die  like 
beasts,  and  have  no  hereafter.1T 

In  the  fourth  chapter  the  writer  goes  more  deeply 
into  this  pessimism.  lie  says  that  to  die  is  better  than 
to  live,  and  better  still  never  to  have  been  born.  A  fool 
is  better  than  a  wise  man,  because  he  does  nothing  and 
cares  for  nothing.** 

Success  is  bad,  progress  is  an  evil ;  for  these  take  us 
away  from  others,  and  leave  us  lonely,  because  above 
them  and  hated  by  them.*)**]* 

Worship  is  idle.  Do  not  offer  the  sacrifice  of  fools,  but 
stop  when  you  are  going  to  the  Temple,  and  return.  Do 
not  pray.  It  is  of  no  use.  God  does  not  hear  you. 
Dreams  do  not  come  from  God,  but  from  what  you  were 
doing  before  you  went  to  sleep.  Eat  and  drink,  that  is 
the  best.  J  \  All  men  go  as  they  come. 

So  the  dreary  statement  proceeds.  Men  are  born  for 
no  end,  and  go  no  one  can  tell  where.  Live  a  thousand 
years,  it  all  comes  to  the  same  thing.  Who  can  tell  what 
is  good  for  a  man  in  this  shadowy,  empty  life  ?  §§ 

It  is  better  to  look  on  death  than  on  life,  wiser  to  be 


*  Eccles.  i.  2-11. 

+  Ibid.  i.  12  ;  ii.  11. 

+  Ibid.  ii.  12-20. 

§  Ibid.  ii.  24. 

||  Ibid.  iii.  1-11. 


IT  Ibid.  iii.  18-21. 
**  Ibid.  iy.  1-3. 

+t  Ibid.  iv.  9-12. 
££  Ibid.  v.  1-7,  18. 
§§  Ibid.  vi. 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


437 


sad  than  to  be  cheerful.  If  you  say,  “  There  have  been 
good  times  in  the  past,”  do  not  be  too  sure  of  that.  If 
you  say,  “  We  can  be  good,  at  least,  if  we  cannot  be  hap¬ 
py,”  there  is  such  a  thing  as  being  too  good,  and  cheat¬ 
ing  yourself  out  of  pleasure.* 

Women  are  worse  than  men.  You  may  find  one  good 
man  among  a  thousand,  but  not  one  good  woman.-)* 

It  is  best  to  be  on  the  right  side  of  the  powers  that  be, 
for  they  can  do  what  they  please.  Speedy  and  certain 
punishment  alone  can  keep  men  from  doing  evil.  The 
same  thing  happens  to  the  good  and  to  the  wicked.  #  All 
things  come  alike  to  all.  This  life  is,  in  short,  an  inex¬ 
plicable  puzzle.  The  perpetual  refrain  is,  eat,  drink,  and 
be  merry.  J 

It  is  best  to  do  what  you  can,  and  think  nothing  about 
it.  Cast  your  bread  on  the  waters,  very  likely  you  will 
get  it  again.  Sow  your  seed  either  in  the  morning  or  at 
night ;  it  makes  no  difference.  § 

Death  is  coming  to  all.  All  is  vanity.  I  continue  to 
preach,  because  I  see  the  truth,  and  may  as  well  say  it, 
though  there  is  no  end  to  talking  and  writing.  You  may 
sum  up  all  wisdom  in  six  words :  “  Fear  God  and  keep 
his  commandments.”  || 

The  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  teaches  a  great  truth  in  an 
unexampled  strain  of  pathetic  eloquence.  It  teaches  what 
a  black  scepticism  descends  on  the  wisest,  most  fortunate, 
most  favored  of  mankind,  when  he  looks  only  to  this 
world  and  its  joys.  It  could,  however,  only  have  been  writ¬ 
ten  by  one  who  had  gone  through  this  dreadful  experience. 
The  intellect  alone  never  sounded  such  depths  as  these. 
Moreover,  it  could  hardly  have  been  written  unless  in  a 
time  when  such  scepticism  prevailed,  nor  by  one  who, 
having  lived  it  all,  had  not  also  lived  through  it  all,  and 
found  the  cure  for  this  misery  in  pure  unselfish  obedience 
to  truth  and  right.  It  seems,  therefore,  like  a  Book  of 

*  Eccles.  vii.  2,  10,  15,  16. 

+  Ibid.  vii.  26  -  28. 

J  Ibid.  viii.  2,  3,  4,  11,  14  (ix.  2,  3),  15,  17. 

§  Ibid.  xi.  1,  2,  6. 

||  Ibid.  xii.  1-8,  9,  12,  13. 


438 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Confessions,  or  the  Becord  of  an  Experience,  and  as  such 
well  deserves  its  place  in  the  Bible  and  Jewish  literature. 

The  Book  of  Job  is  a  still  more  wonderful  production, 
but  in  a  wholly  different  tone.  It  is  full  of  manly  faith 
in  truth  and  right.  It  has  no  jot  of  scepticism  in  it.  It 
is  a  noble  protest  against  all  hypocrisies  and  all  shams. 
Job  does  not  know  why  he  is  afflicted,  but  he  will  never 
confess  that  he  is  a  sinner  Jill  he  sees  it.  The  Pharisaic 
friends  tell  him  his  sufferings  are  judgments  for  his  sins, 
and  advise  him  to  admit  it  to  be  so.  But  Job  refuses,  and 
declares  he  will  utter  no  “  words  of  wind  ”  to  the  Al¬ 
mighty.  The  grandest  thought  is  here  expressed  in  the 
noblest  language  which  the  human  tongue  has  ever  ut¬ 
tered. 

§  6.  The  Prophets  ;  or,  Judaism  as  the  Hope  of  a  spiritual 
and  universal  Kingdom  of  God. 

Before  we  proceed  to  examine  the  prophetic  writings 
of  the  Old  Testament,  it  is  desirable  to  make  some  remarks 
upon  prophecy  in  general,  and  on  the  character  of  the  He¬ 
brew  prophets. 

Prophecy  in  general  is  a  modification  of  inspiration. 
Inspiration  is  sight,  or  rather  it  is  insight.  All  our  knowl¬ 
edge  comes  to  us  through  the  intellectual  power  which 
may  be  called  sight,  which  is  of  two  kinds,  —  the  sight 
of  external  things,  or  outsight ;  and  the  sight  of  internal 
things,  which  is  insight,  or  intuition.  The  senses  consti¬ 
tute  the  organization  by  which  we  see  external  things  ; 
consciousness  is  the  organization  by  which  we  perceive 
internal  things.  Now  the  organs  of  sense  are  the  same 
in  kind,  but  differ  in  degree  in  all  men.  All  human 
beings,  as  such,  have  the  power  of  perceiving  an  external 
world,  by  means  of  the  five  senses.  But  though  all  have 
these  five  senses,  all  do  not  perceive  the  same  external 
phenomena  by  means  of  them.  For,  in  the  first  place, 
their  senses  differ  in  degrees  of  power.  Some  men’s  eyes 
are  telescopic,  some  microscopic,  and  some  are  blind. 
Some  men  can  but  partially  distinguish  colors,  others  not 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


439 


at  all.  Some  have  acute  hearing,  others  are  deaf.  And 
secondly,  what  men  perceive  through  the  senses  differs 
according  to  what  is  about  them.  A  man  living  in  China 
cannot  see  Mont  Blanc  or  the  city  of  New  York ;  a  man 
on  the  other  side  of  the  moon  can  never  see  the  earth.  A 
man  living  in  the  year  1871  cannot  see  Alexander  the 
Great  or  the  Apostle  Paul.  And  thirdly,  two  persons 
may  be  looking  at  the  same  thing,  and  with  senses  of  the 
same  degree  of  power,  and  yet  one  may  be  able  to  see 
what  the  other  is  not  able  to  see.  Three  men,  one  a 
geologist,  one  a  botanist,  and  one  a  painter,  may  look  at 
the  same  landscape,  and  one  will  see  the  stratification,  the 
second  will  see  the  flora,  and  the  third  the  picturesque 
qualities  of  the  scene.  As  regards  outsight  then,  though 
men  in  general  have  the  same  senses  to  see  with,  what 
they  see  depends  (1)  on  their  quality  of  sense,  (2)  on 
their  position  in  space  and  time,  (3)  and  on  their  state  of 
mental  culture. 

That  which  is  true  of  the  perception  of  external  phe¬ 
nomena  is  also  true  of  the  perception  of  internal  things. 

Insight,  or  intuition,  has  the  same  limitations  as  out¬ 
sight.  These  are  (1)  the  quality  of  the  faculty  of  intui¬ 
tion;  (2)  the  inward  circumstances  or  position  of  the 
soul ;  (3)  the  soul’s  culture  or  development.  Those  who 
deny  the  existence  of  an  intuitive  faculty,  teaching  that 
all  knowledge  comes  from  without  through  the  senses,  some¬ 
times  say  that  if  there  were  such  a  faculty  as  intuition, 
men  would  all  possess  intuitively  the  same  knowledge  of 
moral  and  spiritual  truth.  They  might  as  well  say  that,  as 
all  men  have  eyes,  all  must  see  the  same  external  objects. 

All  men  have  more  or  less  of  the  intuitive  faculty,  but 
some  have  much  more  than  others.  Those  who  have  the 
most  are  called,  by  way  of  eminence,  inspired  men.  But 
among  these  there  is  a  difference  as  regards  the  objects 
which  are  presented  by  God,  in  the  order  of  his  provi¬ 
dence,  to  their  intuitive  faculty.  Some  he  places  inwardly 
among,  visions  of  beauty,  and  they  are  inspired  poets 
and  artists.  Others  he  places  inwardly  amid  visions 
of  temporal  and  human  life,  and  they  become  inspired 
discoverers  and  inventors.  And  others  he  places  amid 


440 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


visions  of  religious  truth,  and  they  are  inspired  prophets, 
lawgivers,  and  evangelists.  But  these  again  differ  in  their 
own  spiritual  culture  and  growth.  Moses  and  the  Apostle 
Paul  were  both  inspired  men,  but  the  Apostle  Paul  saw 
truths  which  Moses  did  not  see,  because  the  Apostle  Paul 
had  reached  a  higher  degree  of  spiritual  culture.  Christ 
alone  possessed  the  fulness  of  spiritual  inspiration,  be¬ 
cause  he  alone  had  attained  the  fulness  of  spiritual  life. 

Now  the  inspired  man  may  look  inwardly  either  at  the 
past,  the  present,  or  the  future.  If  he  look  at  the  past  he 
is  an  inspired  historian ;  if  at  the  present,  an  inspired  law¬ 
giver,  or  religious  teacher;  if  at  the  future,  an  inspired 
prophet.  The  inspired  faculty  may  be  the  same,  and  the 
difference  may  be  in  the  object  inwardly  present  to  its 
contemplation.  The  seer  may  look  from  things  past  to 
things  present,  from  things  present  to  things  to  come,  and 
his  inspiration  be  the  same.  He  fixes  his  mind  on  the 
past,  and  it  grows  clear  before  him,  and  he  sees  how  events 
were  and  what  they  mean.  He  looks  at  the  present,  and 
sees  how  things  ought  to  be.  He  looks  at  the  future,  and 
sees  how  things  shall  be. 

The  Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament  were  not,  as  is  com¬ 
monly  supposed,  men  who  only  uttered  predictions  of  the 
future.  They  were  men  of  action  more  than  of  contem¬ 
plation.  Strange  as  it  may  seem  to  us,  who  are  accus¬ 
tomed  to  consider  their  office  as  confined  to  religious 
prediction,  their  chief  duty  was  that  of  active  politicians. 
They  mixed  religion  and  politics.  They  interfered  with 
public  measures,  rebuked  the  despotism  of  the  kings  and 
the  political  errors  of  the  people.  Moreover,  they  were 
the  constitutional  lawyers  and  publicists  of  the  Hebrews, 
inspired  to  look  backward  and  explain  the  meaning  of  the 
Mosaic  law  as  well  as  to  look  forward  to  its  spiritual 
development  in  the  reign  of  the  Messiah.  Prediction, 
therefore,  of  future  events,  was  a  very  small  part  of  the 
work  of  the  Prophets.  Their  main  duty  was  to  warn, 
rebuke,  teach,  exhort,  and  encourage. 

The  Hebrew  prophets  were  under  the  law.  They  were 
loyal  to  Moses  and  to  his  institutions.  But  it  was  to  the 
spirit  rather  than  to  the  letter,  the  idea  rather  than  the 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


441 


form.  They  differed  from  the  priests  in  preferring  the 
moral  part  of  the  law  to  the  ceremonial.  They  were 
great  reformers  in  bringing  back  the  people  from  external 
formalism  to  vital  obedience.  They  constantly  made  the 
ceremonial  part  of  the  law  subservient  to  the  moral  part 
of  the  law.  Thus  Samuel  said  to  Saul :  “  Hath  the  Lord 
as  great  delight  in  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices  as  in 
obeying  the  voice  of  the  Lord  ?  Behold,  to  obey  is  better 
than  sacrifice,  and  to  hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams.”  And 
so  afterward  Isaiah  declared  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  that 
the  sacrifices  of  a  wicked  people  were  vain,  and  their  in¬ 
cense  an  abomination. 

We  read  of  the  schools  of  the  Prophets,  where  they 
studied  the  law  of  Moses,  and  were  taught  the  duties  of 
their  office.  In  these  schools  music  was  made  use  of  as  a 
medium  of  inspiration. 

But  the  office  of  a  prophet  was  not  limited  by  culture, 
sex,  age,  or  condition.  Women,  like  Miriam,  Deborah, 
Hannah,  Huldah,  and  Noadiah ;  inexperienced  youths,  like 
Jeremiah ;  men  of  high  standing  in  society,  like  Isaiah 
and  Daniel ;  humble  men,  like  the  ploughman  Elisha  and 
the  herdsman  Amos ;  men  married  and  unmarried,  are 
numbered  among  the  Prophets.  Living  poorly,  wearing 
sackcloth,  feeding  on  vegetables,  imprisoned  or  assassi¬ 
nated  by  kings,  stoned  by  the  people,  the  most  unpopular 
of  men,  sometimes  so  possessed  by  the  spirit  as  to  rave 
like  madmen,  obliged  to  denounce  judgments  and  woes 
against  kings  and  people,  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  often 
shrank  from  their  terrible  office.  Jonah  ran  to  hide  in  a 
ship  of  Tarsliish.  They  have  called  their  message  a  bur¬ 
den,  like  Isaiah;  they  have  cried  out  like  Jeremiah,  “Ah, 
Lord  God,  I  cannot  speak,  for  I  am  a  child  ”  ;  like  Ezekiel, 
they  have  been  obliged  to  make  their  faces  harder  than 
flints  in  order  to  deliver  their  message. 

Dean  Stanley,  in  speaking  of  the  Prophets  of  the  Old 
Testament,  says  that  their  theology  consisted  in  proclaim¬ 
ing  the  unity  of  God  against  all  polytheism,  and  the  spir¬ 
ituality  of  God  against  all  idolatry,  in  declaring  the  supe¬ 
riority  of  moral  to  ceremonial  duties,  and  in  announcing 
the  supremacy  of  goodness  above  the  letter,  ceremony,  or 

19* 


442 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


dogma.  This  makes  the  contrast  between  the  Prophets 
and  all  other  sacred  persons  who  have  existed  in  pagan 
and,  he  adds,  even  in  Christian  times.  Dean  Stanley  says 
the  Prophets  were  religious  teachers,  without  the  usual 
faults  of  religious  teachers,  and  he  proposes  them  as  an 
example  to  the  Christian  clergy.  He  says :  “  O,  if  the 
spirit  of  our  profession,  of  our  order,  of  our  body,  were 
the  spirit,  or  anything  like  the  spirit,  of  the  ancient 
Prophets !  If  with  us  truth,  charity,  justice,  fairness  to 
opponents,  were  a  passion,  a  doctrine,  a  point  of  honor,  to 
be  upheld  with  the  same  energy  as  that  with  which  we 
uphold  our  own  position  and  our  own  opinions  !  ” 

The  spirit  of  the  world  asks  first,  Is  it  safe  ?  second¬ 
ly,  Is  it  true  ?  The  spirit  of  the  Prophets  asks  first,  Is 
it  true  ?  secondly,  Is  it  safe  ?  The  spirit  of  the  world 
asks  first.  Is  it  prudent  ?  secondly,  Is  it  right  ?  The 
spirit  of  the  Prophets  asks  first,  Is  it  right  ?  secondly,  Is 
it -prudent  ?  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  prophetic  order  of  the 
Jewish  Church  remains  alone.  It  stands  like  one  of  those 
vast  monuments  of  ancient  days,  with  ramparts  broken, 
with  inscriptions  defaced,  but  stretching  from  hill  to  hill, 
conveying  in  its  long  line  of  arches  the  pure  rill  of  living 
wrater  over  deep  valley  and  thirsty  plain,  far  above  all 
the  puny  modern  buildings  which  have  grown  up  at  its 
feet,  and  into  the  midst  of  which  it  strides  with  its  mass¬ 
ive  substructions,  its  gigantic  height,  its  majestic  propor¬ 
tions,  unrivalled  by  any  erection  of  modern  time. 

The  predictions  of  the  future  by  the  Prophets  of  J udsea 
were  far  higher  in  their  character  than  those  which  come 
occasionally  to  mankind  through  dreams  and  presenti¬ 
ments.  Yet  no  doubt  they  proceeded  from  the  same 
essentially  human  faculty.  This  also  is  asserted  by  the 
Dean  of  Westminster,  who  says  that  there  is  a  power  of 
divination  granted  in  some  inexplicable  manner  to  ordi¬ 
nary  men,  and  he  refers  to  such  instances  as  the  prediction 
of  the  discovery  of  America  by  Seneca,  that  of  the  Reforma¬ 
tion  by  Dante,  and  the  prediction  of  the  twelve  centuries 
of  Roman  dominion  by  the  apparition  of  twelve  vultures 
to  Romulus,  which  was  so  understood  four  hundred  years 
before  its  actual  accomplishment.  If  such  presentiments 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


443 


are  not  always  verified,  neither  were  the  predictions  of 
the  Prophets  always  fulfilled.  Jonah  announced,  in  the 
most  distinct  and  absolute  terms,  that  in  forty  days  Nin¬ 
eveh'  should  he  destroyed.  But  the  people  repented,  and 
it  was  not  destroyed.  Their  predictions  of  the  Messiah 
are  remarkable,  especially  because  in  speaking  of  him  and 
his  time  they  went  out  of  the  law  and  the  spirit  of  the 
law,  and  became  partakers  of  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel. 
The  Prophets  of  the  Jews,  whatever  else  we  deny  to  their 
predictions,  certainly  foresaw  Christianity.  They  de¬ 
scribe  the  coming  of  a  time  in  which  the  law  should  be 
written  in  the  heart,  of  a  king  who  should  reign  in  right¬ 
eousness,  of  a  prince  of  peace,  of  one  who  should  rule  by 
the  power  of  truth,  not  by  force,  whose  kingdom  should 
be  universal  and  everlasting,  and  into  which  all  nations 
of  the  earth  should  flow.  What  the  Prophets  foresaw 
was  not  times  nor  seasons,  not  dates  nor  names,  not 
any  minute  particulars.  But  they  saw  a  future  age, 
they  lived  out  of  their  own  time  in  another  time,  which 
had  not  yet  arrived.  They  left  behind  them  Jewish  cere¬ 
monialism,  and  entered  into  a  moral  and  spiritual  relig¬ 
ion.  They  dropped  Jewish  narrowness  and  called  all 
mankind  brethren.  In  this  they  reach  the  highest  form 
of  foresight,  which  is  not  simply  to  predict  a  coming 
event,  but  to  live  in  the  spirit  of  a  future  time. 

Thus  the  Prophets  developed  the  Jewish  religion  to  its 
highest  point.  The  simple,  childlike  faith  of  Abraham 
became,  in  their  higher  vision,  the  sight  of  a  universal 
Father,  and  of  an  age  in  which  all  men  and  nations  should 
be  united  into  one  great  moral  kingdom.  Further  than 
this,  it  was  not  possible  to  go  in  vision.  The  difference 
between  the  Prophets  and  Jesus  was,  that  he  accom¬ 
plished  what  they  foresaw.  His  life,  full  of  faith  in  God 
and  man,  became  the  new  seed  of  a  higher  kingdom  than 
that  of  David.  He  was  the  son  of  David,  as  inheriting 
the  loving  trust  of  David  in  a  heavenly  Father ;  he  was 
also  the  Lord  of  David,  by  fulfilling  David’s  love  to  God 
with  his  own  love  to  man  ;  making  piety  and  charity  one, 
faith  and  freedom  one,  reason  and  religion  one,  this  life 
and  the  life  to  come  one.  He  died  to  accomplish  this 
union  and  to  make  this  atoning  sacrifice. 


444 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


§  7.  Judaism  as  a  Preparation  for  Christianity. 

After  the  return  from  the  captivity  the  Jewish  nation 
remained  loyal  to  Jehovah.  The  dangers  of  polytheism 
and  idolatry  had  passed.  We  no  more  hear  of  either  of 
these  tendencies,  but,  on  the  contrary,  a  rigid  and  almost 
bigoted  monotheism  was  firmly  established.  Their  suf¬ 
ferings,  the  teaching  of  their  Prophets,  perhaps  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  the  Persian  worship,  had  confirmed  them  in  the 
belief  that  J eliovah  was  one  and  alone,  and  that  the  gods 
of  the  nations  were  idols.  They  had  lost  forever  the 
sacred  ark  of  the  covenant  and  the  mysterious  ornaments 
of  the  high-priest.  Their  kings  had  disappeared,  and  a 
new  form  of  theocracy  took  the  place  of  a  royal  govern¬ 
ment.  The  high-priest,  with  the  great  council,  became 
the  supreme  authority.  The  government  was  hierarchal. 

Hellenic  influences  began  to  act  on  the  Jewish  mind, 
and  a  peculiar  dialect  of  Hebrew-Greek,  called  the  Hel¬ 
lenistic,  was  formed.  The  Septuagint,  or  Greek  version 
of  the  Old  Testament,  was  made  in  Alexandria  about 
b.  c.  260.  In  Egypt,  Greek  philosophy  began  to  affect 
the  Jewish  mind,  the  final  result  of  which  was  the  sys¬ 
tem  of  Philo.  Greek  influences  spread  to  such  an  ex¬ 
tent  that  a  great  religious  revolution  took  place  in  Pales¬ 
tine  (b.  c.  170),  and  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  was  turned 
into  a  temple  of  Olympic  Jupiter.  Many  of  the  priests 
and  leading  citizens  accepted  this  change,  though  the 
heart  of  the  people  rejected  it  with  horror.  Under  An- 
tiochus  the  Temple  was  profaned,  the  sacrifices  ceased, 
the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath  and  use  of  the  Scriptures 
were  forbidden  by  a  royal  edict.  Then  arose  the  Macca¬ 
bees,  and  after  a  long  and  bitter  struggle  re-established 
the  worship  of  Jehovah,  B.  c.  141. 

After  this  the  mass  of  the  people,  in  their  zeal  for  the 
law  and  their  old  institutions,  fell  into  the  narrow  bigotry 
of  the  Pharisees.  The  Sadducees  were  Jewish  Epicu¬ 
reans,  but  though  wealthy,  were  few,  and  had  little  in¬ 
fluence.  The  Essenes  were  Jewish  monks,  living  in 
communities,  and  as  little  influential  as  are  the  Shakers  in 
Massachusetts  to-day.  They  were  not  only  few,  but  their 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


445 


whole  system  was  contrary  to  the  tone  of  Jewish  thought, 
and  was  probably  derived  from  Orphic  Pythagoreanism.* 

The  Talmud,  that  mighty  maze  of  Jewish  thought, 
commencing  after  the  return  from  the  captivity,  contains 
the  history  of  the  gradual  progress  and  development  of 
*  the  national  mind.  The  study  of  the  Talmud  is  neces¬ 
sary  to  the  full  understanding  of  the  rise  of  Christianity. 
Many  of  the  parables  and  precepts  of  J esus  may  have 
had  their  origin  in  these  traditions  and  teachings.  Por 
the  Talmud  contains  much  that  is  excellent,  and  the  orig¬ 
inality  of  Jesus  was  not  in  saying  what  never  had  been 
thought  before,  but  in  vitalizing  all  old  truth  out  of  a  cen¬ 
tral  spiritual  life.  His  originality  was  not  novelty,  but 
vitality.  We  have  room  here  but  for  a  single  extract.“f* 

“  ‘  Six  hundred  and  thirteen  injunctions,’  says  the  Talmud, 
‘  was  Moses  instructed  to  give  to  the  people.  David  reduced 
them  all  to  eleven,  in  the  fifteenth  Psalm  :  Lord,  who  shall 
abide  in  thy  tabernacle  who  shall  dwell  on  thy  holy  hill  1 
He  that  walketh  uprightly,’  &c. 

“‘The  Prophet  Isaiah  reduced  them  to  six  (xxxiii.  15): 
He  that  walketh  righteously,’  Ac. 

“  *  The  Prophet  Micah  reduced  them  to  three  (vi.  8)  :  What 
doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love 
mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  1 

“  ‘  Isaiah  once  more  reduced  them  to  two  (lvi.  1) :  Keep 
ye  judgment  and  do  justice. 

“  ‘  Amos  (v.  4)  reduced  them  all  to  one  :  Seek  ye  me  and 
ye  shall  live. 

“  ‘  But  lest  it  might  be  supposed  from  this  that  God  could  be 
found  in  the  fulfilment  of  his  whole  law  only,  Habakkuk  said 
(ii.  4) :  The  just  shall  live  by  his  faith.’  ” 

.  Thus  we  have  seen  the  Jewish  religion  gradually  devel¬ 
oped  out  of  the  family  worship  of  Abraham,  through  the 
national  worship  of  the  law  to  the  personal  and  filial 
trust  of  David,  and  the  spiritual  monotheism  of  Job  and 
the  Prophets.  Through  all  these  changes  there  ran  the 
one  golden  thread  of  faith  in  a  Supreme  Being  who  was 
not  hidden  and  apart  from  the  world,  but  who  came  to 
man  as  to  his  child. 

*  Dollinger,  The  Gentile  and  the  Jew. 

t  See  article  on  the  Talmud,  Quarterly  Review,  1867. 


446 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


At  first  this  belief  was  narrow  and  like  that  of  a  child* 
We  read  that  when  Noah  went  into  the  ark,  “  the  Lord 
shut  him  in  ” ;  that  when  Babel  was  built,  “  the  Lord 
came  down  to  see  the  city  and  the  tower  which  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  men  had  built  ”  ;  that  when  Noah  offered  burnt- 
sacrifices,  “  the  Lord  smelled  a  sweet  savor  ”  ;  that  he  told 
Moses  to  make  him  a  sanctuary,  that  lie  might  dwell 
among  the  Israelites.  We  have  seen,  in  our  chapter  on 
Greece,  that  Homer  makes  Jupiter  send  a  pernicious 
dream  to  Agamemnon,  to  deceive  him ;  in  other  words, 
makes  J upiter  tell  a  lie  to  Agamemnon.  But  how  is  the 
account  in  1  Kings  xxii.  20  -23,  any  better  ?-(* 

But  how  all  this  ignorance  was  enlightened,  and  this 
narrowness  enlarged,  let  the  magnificent  theism  of  the 
Psalms,  of  Job,  and  of  Isaiah  testify.  Solomon  declares 
“  The  heaven  of  heavens  cannot  contain  him,  how  much 
less  this  house  that  I  have  builded.”  Job  and  the  Psalms 
and  Isaiah  describe  the  omniscience,  omnipresence,  and 
inscrutable  perfections  of  the  Deity  in  language  to  which 
twenty  centuries  have  been  able  to  add  nothing.  { 

Thus  Judaism  was  monotheism,  first  as  a  seed,  then  as 
a  blade,  and  then  as  the  ear  which  the  sun  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  was  to  ripen  into  the  full  corn.  The  highest  truth 
was  present,  implicitly,  in  Judaism,  and  became  explicit 
in  Christianity.  The  law  was  the  schoolmaster  to  bring 
men  to  Christ.  It  taught,  however  imperfectly,  a  supreme 
and  living  God  ;  a  Providence  ruling  all  things  ;  a  Judge 
rewarding  good  and  punishing  evil ;  a  holy  Being,  of 
purer  eyes  than  to  behold  iniquity.  It  announced  a  moral 

*  An  anecdote  was  recently  related  of  a  little  girl,  five  years  old,  who 
was  seen  walking  along  the  road,  looking  up  into  the  trees.  Being  asked 
what  she  was  seeking,  she  replied:  “Mamma  told  me  God  was  every¬ 
where,  but  I  cannot  see  him  in  that  tree.”  The  faith  of  the  patriarchs 
was  like  that  of  this  child,  —  not  false,  hut  unenlightened. 

t  “  And  the  Lord  said,  Who  shall  persuade  Ahab,  that  he  may  go  up 
and  fall  at  Ramoth- Gilead  ?  And  one  said  on  this  manner,  and  another 
said  on  that  manner.  And  there  came  forth  a  spirit,  and  stood  before 
the  Lord,  and  said,  I  will  persuade  him.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  him, 
Wherewith  ?  And  he  said,  I  will  go  forth,  and  I  will  be  a  lying  spirit  in 
the  mouth  of  all  his  prophets.  And  he  said,  Thou  shalt  persuade  him, 
and  prevail  also  :  go  forth  and  do  so.” 

X  See  Greg,  The  Creed  of  Christendom,  Chap.  V.  Also,  The  Spirit  of 
the  Bible,  by  Edward  Higginson. 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION. 


447 


law  to  be  obeyed,  the  substance  of  which  was  to  love 
God  with  all  the  heart,  and  one’s  neighbor  as  one’s  self. 

Wherever  the  Apostles  of  Christ  went  they  found  that 
Judaism  had  prepared  the  way.  Usually,  in  every  place, 
they  first  preached  to  the  Jews,  and  made  converts  of 
them.  For  Judaism,  though  so  narrow  and  so  alien  to 
the  Greek  and  Latin  thought,  had  nevertheless  pervaded 
/  all  parts  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Despised  and  satirized 
by  philosophers  and  poets,  it  had  yet  won  its  way  by  its 
strength  of  conviction.  It  offered  to  men,  not  a  philoso¬ 
phy,  but  a  religion  ;  not  thought,  but  life.  Too  intolerant 
of  differences  to  convert  the  world  to  monotheism,  it  yet 
made  a  preparation  for  its  conversion.  This  was  its 
power,  and  thus  it  went  before  the  face  of  the  Master, 
to  prepare  his  way. 


448 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


CHAPTEB  XI. 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


§  1.  Recent  Works  on  the  Life  of  Mohammed.  §  2.  The  Arabs  and 
Arabia.  §  3.  Early  Life  of  Mohammed,  to  the  Hegira.  §  4.  Change 
in  the  Character  of  Mohammed  after  the  Hegira.  §  5.  Religious  Doc¬ 
trines  and  Practices  among  the  Mohammedans.  §  6.  The  Criticism  of 
Mr.  Palgrave  on  Mohammedan  Theology.  §  7.  Mohammedanism  a 
Relapse  ;  the  worst  Form  of  Monotheism,  and  a  retarding  Element  in 
Civilization.  Note. 


1.  Recent  Works  on  the  Life  of  Mohammed. 


R.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  once  declared,  “  There  are 


u  two  objects  of  curiosity,  the  Christian  world  and 
the  Mohammedan  world  ;  all  the  rest  may  he  considered 
as  barbarous.”  Since  Dr.  Johnson’s  time  we  have  learned 
to  be  curious  about  other  forms  of  human  thought,  and 
regard  the  famous  line  of  Terence  as  expressing  more 
accurately  the  proper  frame  of  mind  for  a  Christian  phi¬ 
losopher.  Nevertheless,  Mohammedanism  still  claims  a 
special  interest  and  excites  a  peculiar  curiosity.  It  is  the 
only  religion  which  has  threatened  Christianity  with  a 
dangerous  rivalry.  It  is  the  only  other  religion  whose 
origin  is  in  the  broad  daylight  of  history.  Its  author  is 
the  only  one  among  the  great  men  of  the  world  who  has 
at  the  same  time  founded  a  religion,  formed  a  people,  and 
established  an  empire.  The  marvellous  spread  of  this 
religion  is  a  mystery  which  never  ceases  to  stimulate  the 
mind  to  new  inquiry.  How  was  it  that  in  the  short 
space  of  a  century  the  Arab  tribes,  before  always  at  war 
among  themselves,  should  have  been  united  into  an  irre¬ 
sistible  power,  and  have  conquered  Syria,  Persia,  the  whole 
of  Northern  Africa  and  Spain  ?  And  with  this  religious 
outbreak,  this  great  revival  of  monotheism  in  Asia,  there 
came  also  as  remarkable  a  renaissance  of  learning,  which 
made  the  Arabs  the  teachers  of  philosophy  and  art  to 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


449 


Europe  during  a  long  period.  Arab  Spain  was  a  focus  of 
light  while  Christian  Europe  lay  in  mediaeval  darkness. 
And  still  more  interesting  and  perplexing  is  the  character 
of  Mohammed  himself.  What  was  he,  —  an  impostor  or 
a  prophet  ?  Did  his  work  advance  or  retard  human  pro¬ 
gress  ?  What  is  his  position  in  history  ?  Such  are  some 
of  the  questions  on  which  we  shall  endeavor  to  throw 
light  in  the  present  chapter. 

Within  a  few  years  new  materials  for  this  study  have 
been  made  accessible  by  the  labors  of  Weil,  Caussin  de 
Perceval,  Muir,  Sprenger,  Dellinger,  and  Arnold.  Dr. 
Gustav  Weil  published  his  work*  in  1843.  It  was  drawn 
from  Arabic  manuscripts  and  the  Koran.  When  Weil 
began  his  studies  on  Mohammed  in  1837,  he  found  no 
book  except  that  of  Gagnier,  published  in  1732,  from 
which  he  could  derive  substantial  aid.  But  Gagnier  had 
only  collected,  without  any  attempt  at  criticism,  the  tra¬ 
ditions  and  statements  concerning  Mohammed  believed 
by  orthodox  Moslems.  Satisfied  that  a  literary  want 
existed  at  this  point,  Dr.  Weil  devoted  himself  to  such 
studies  as  should  enable  him  to  supply  it  ;  and  the 
result  was  a  work  concerning  which  Milman  says  that 
“  nothing  has  escaped  ”  the  diligence  of  its  author.  But 
four  years  after  appeared  the  book  of  M.  Caussin  de  Per¬ 
ceval,-)-  a  work  of  which  M.  Saint-Hilaire  says  that  it 
marks  a  new  era  in  these  studies,  on  account  of  the  abun¬ 
dance  and  novelty  of  its  details,  and  the  light  thrown  on 
the  period  which  in  Arabia  preceded  the  coming-  of  Mo¬ 
hammed.  Dr.  A.  Sprenger,  an  eminent  German  scholar, 
early  determined  to  devote  himself  to  the  study  of  Orien¬ 
tal  literature  in  the  East.  He  spent  a  long  time  in  India, 
and  was  for  twelve  years  principal  of  a  Mohammedan 
school  in  Delhi,  where  he  established,  in  1845,  an  illus¬ 
trated  penny  magazine  in  the  Hindoo  language.  After 
returning  to  Europe  with  a  vast  number  of  Oriental  man- 

*  Mohammed  der  Prophet,  sein  Leben  und  seine  Lehre.*  Stuttgart, 
1843. 

4*  Essai  sur  l’histoire  des  Arabes,  avant  Tlslamisme,  pendant  l’e^oque 
de  Mahomet,  et  jusqu’a  la  reduction  de  toutes  lea  tribus  sous  la  loi  mus- 
sulmane.  Paris.  3  vols.  8vo.  1847-48. 

CO 


450 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


uscripts,  he  composed  his  Life  of  Mohammed,* * * §  the  result 
of  extensive  studies.  Among  the  preparations  for  this 
work  we  will  cite  only  one.  Dr.  Sprenger  edited  in  Cal¬ 
cutta  the  first  volume  of  the  I^aba,  which  contains  the* 
names  and  biographies  of  eight  thousand  persons  who  were 
personally  acquainted  with  Mohammed.*)*  But,  as  if  to 
embarrass  us  with  riches,  comes  also  Mr.  Muir  J  and  pre¬ 
sents  us  with  another  life  of  the  prophet,  likewise  drawn 
from  original  sources,  and  written  with  learning  and  can¬ 
dor.  This  work,  in  four  volumes,  goes  over  the  whole 
ground  of  the  history  of  Arabia  before  the  coming  of  the 
prophet,  and  then,  from  Arabic  sources,  narrates  the  life 
of  Mohammed  himself,  up  to  the  era  of  the  Hegira.  The 
result  of  these  researches  is  that  we  know  accurately 
what  Mr.  Hallam  in  his  time  despaired  of  knowing,  —  all 
the  main  points  of  the  history  of  Mohammed.  There  is 
no  legend,  no  myth,  to  trouble  us.  M.  Saint-Hilaire  says 
that  the  French  are  far  less  acquainted  with  Charlemagne 
than  the  Moslems  are  with  their  prophet,  who  came  two 
centuries  earlier.  . 

A  Mohammedan  writer,  Syed  Ahmed  Khan  Bahador, 
has  lately  published,  in  English,  a  series  of  Essays  on  the 
life  of  Mohammed,  Arabia,  the  Arabs,  Mohammedan  tra¬ 
ditions,  and  kindred  topics,  written  from  the  stand-point 
of  a  believer  in  Islam.  §  He  is  dissatisfied  with  all  the 
recent  works  on  Mohammed,  including  those  of  Dr. 
Sprenger  and  Mr.  Muir.  He  believes  that  the  Arabic 
soiirces  from  which  these  biographies  are  derived  are  not 
the  most  authentic.  The  special  objections,  however, 
which  this  able  Mohammedan  urges  against  these  Euro¬ 
pean  biographies  by  Sprenger  and  Muir  do  not  affect  any 
of  the  important  points  in  the  history,  but  only  details  of 
small  moment.  Notwithstanding  his  criticisms,  therefore, 

*  Das  Leben  und  die  Lehre  des  Mohammed,  etc.  Yon  A.  Sprenger. 
Berlin,  1861. 

t  Sprenger,  Yorrede,  p.  xii. 

J  The  Life  of  Mahomet  and  History  of  Islam.  By  William  Muir,  Esq. 
London,  1858. 

§  A  Series  of  Essays  on  the  Life  of  Mohammed,  and  Subjects  subsidi¬ 
ary  thereto.  By  Syed  Ahmed  Khan  Bahador.  London  :  Triibner  &  Co. 
1870. 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


451 


we  may  safely  assume  that  we  are  in  a  condition  to  un¬ 
derstand  the  actual  life  and  character  of  Mohammed.  All 
that  the  Syed  says  concerning  the  duty  of  an  impartial 
and  friendly  judgment  of  Islam  and  its  author  is,  of  course, 
true.  We  shall  endeavor  in  our  treatment  of  Mohammed 
to  follow  this  exhortation. 

Something,  however,  is  always  gained  by  hearing  what 
the  believers  in  a  system  have  to  say  in  its  behalf,  and 
these  essays  of  the  Mohammedan  scholar  may  help  us  in 
this  way.  One  of  the  most  curious  parts  of  the  volume 
is  that  in  which  he  treats  of  the  prophecies  concerning 
Mohammed  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  Most  of 
our  readers  will  be  surprised  at  learning  that  any  such 
prophecies  exist ;  and  yet  some  of  them  are  quite  as  strik¬ 
ing  as  many  of  those  commonly  adduced  by  writers  on 
prophecy  as  referring  to  Jesus  Christ.  For  example 
(Deut.  xviii.  15,  18),  when  Moses  predicts  that  the  Lord 
will  raise  up  a  prophet  for  the  Jews,  from  among  their 
brethren ;  by  emphasizing  this  latter  clause,  and  arguing 
that  the  Jews  had  no  brethren  except  the  Ishmaelites, 
from  whom  Mohammed  was  born,  an  argument  is  de¬ 
rived  that  the  latter  was  referred  to.  This  is  strengthened 
by  the  declaration  of  Moses,  that  this  prophet  should  be 
“  like  unto  mef  since  Deuteronomy  xxxiv.  10  declares 
that  “  there  arose  no  prophet  in  Israel  like  unto  Moses.” 

Habakkuk  iii.  3  says :  “  The  Holy  One  came  from 
Mount  Paran.”  But  Mount  Paran,  argues  our  friend,  is 
the  mountain  of  Mecca. 

The  Hebrew  word  translated  “  desire  ”  in  Haggai  ii.  7, 
“  The  desire  of  all  nations  shall  come,”  is  said  by  Bahador 
to  be  the  same  word  as  the  name  Mohammed.  He  is 
therefore  predicted  by  his  name  in  this  passage. 

When  Isaiah  says  (xxi.  7),  according  to  the  Septuagint 
translation,  that  he  “  saw  two  riders,  one  on  an  ass  and 
one  on  a  camel,”  Bahador  argues  that  the  rider  on  the  ass 
is  Jesus,  who  so  entered  Jerusalem,  and  that  the  rider  on 
the  camel  is  Mohammed. 

When  John  the  Baptist  was  asked  if  he  were  the 
Christ,  or  Elijah,  or  “  that  prophet,”  Mohammedans  say 
that  “  that  prophet,”  so  anticipated,  was  their  own. 


452 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


§  2.  The  Arabs  and  Arabia. 

The  Arabs  are  a  Semitic  people,  belonging  to  the  same 
great  ethnologic  family  with  the  Babylonians,  Assyrians, 
Phoenicians,  Hebrews,  Ethiopians,  and  Carthaginians.  It 
is  a  race  which  has  given  to  civilized  man  his  literature 
and  his  religion  ;  for  the  alphabet  came  from  the  Phoeni¬ 
cians,  and  the  Bible  from  the  Jews.  In  Hannibal,  it  pro¬ 
duced  perhaps  the  greatest  military  genius  the  world  has 
seen  ;  and  the  Tyrian  merchants,  circumnavigating  Africa, 
discovering  Great  Britain,  and  trading  with  India,  ten 
centuries  before  Christ,  had  no  equals  on  the  ocean  until 
the  time  of  the  Portuguese  discoveries,  twenty-five  cen¬ 
turies  after.  The  Arabs  alone,  of  the  seven  Semitic  fami¬ 
lies,  remained  undistinguished  and  unknown  till  the  days 
of  Mohammed.  Their  claim  of  being  descended  from 
Abraham  is  confirmed  by  the  unerring  evidence  of  lan¬ 
guage.  The  Arabic  roots  are,  nine  tenths  of  them,  iden¬ 
tical  with  the  Hebrew ;  and  a  similarity  of  grammatical 
forms  shows  a  plain  glossological  relation.  But  while  the 
Jews  have  a  history  from  the  days  of  Abraham,  the  Arabs 
had  none  till  Mohammed.  During  twenty  centuries  these 
nomads  wandered  to  and  fro,  engaged  in  mutual  wars, 
verifying  the  prediction  (Gen.  xvi.  12)  concerning  Ish- 
mael :  “  He  will  be  a  wild  man  ;  his  hand  will  be  against 
every  man,  and  every  mans  hand  against  him.”  Wher¬ 
ever  such  wandering  races  exist,  whether  in  Arabia,  Turk- 
istan,  or  Equatorial  Africa,  “  darkness  covers  the  earth, 
and  gross  darkness  the  people.”  The  earth  has  no  geog¬ 
raphy,  and  the  people  no  history.  During  all  this  long 
period,  from  the  time  of  Abraham  to  that  of  Mohammed, 
the  Arabs  were  not  a  nation,  but  only  a  multitude  of 
tribes,  either  stationary  or  wandering.  But  of  these  two 
the  nomad  or  Bedouin  is  the  true  type  of  the  race  as  it 
exists  in  Northern  Arabia.  The  Arab  of  the  South  is  in 
many  respects  different,  —  in  language,  in  manners,  and  in 
character,  —  confirming  the  old  opinion  of  a  double  origin. 
But  the  Northern  Arab  in  his  tent  has  remained  un¬ 
changed  since  the  days  of  the  Bible.  Proud  of  his  pure 
blood,  of  his  freedom,  of  his  tribe,  and  of  his  ancient  cus- 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


453 


toms,  he  desires  no  change.  He  is,  in  Asia,  what  the 
North  American  Indian  is  upon  the  western  continent. 
As  the  Indian’s,  his  chief  virtues  are  courage  in  war,  cun¬ 
ning,  wild  justice,  hospitality,  and  fortitude.  He  is,  how¬ 
ever,  of  a  better  race,  —  more  reflective,  more  religious, 
and  with  a  thirst  for  knowledge.  The  pure  air  and  the 
simple  food  of  the  Arabian  plains  keep  him  in  perfect 
health  ;  and  the  necessity  of  constant  watchfulness  against 
his  foes,  from  whom  he  has  no  defence  of  rock,  forest,  or 
fortification,  quickens  his  perceptive  faculties.  But  the 
Arab  has  also  a  sense  of  spiritual  things,  which  appears 
to  have  a  root  in  his  organization.  The  Arabs  say : 
“The  children  of  Shem  are  prophets,  the  children  of 
Japhet  are  kings,  and  the  children  of  Ham  are  slaves.” 
Having  no  temples,  no  priesthood,  no  religious  forms,  their 
religion  is  less  formal  and  more  instinctive,  like  that  of 
children.  The  Koran  says  :  “  Every  child  is  born  into  the 
religion  of  nature  ;  its  parents  make  it  a  Jew,  a  Christian, 
or  a  Magian.”  But  when  Mohammed  came,  the  religion 
of  the  Arabs  was  a  jumble  of  monotheism  and  polythe¬ 
ism, —  Judaism,  Christianity,  idolatry,  and  fetichism.  At 
one  time  there  had  been  a  powerful  and  intolerant  Jew¬ 
ish  kingdom  in  one  region.  In  Yemen,  at  another  period, 
the  king  of  Abyssinia  had  established  Christianity.  But 
neither  Judaism  nor  Christianity  had  ever  been  able  to 
conquer  the  peninsula ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  cen¬ 
tury  idolatry  was  the  most  prevailing  form  of  worship. 

At  this  time  Mohammed  appeared,  and  in  a  few  years 
united  in  one  faith  all  the  warring  tribes  of  Arabia  ;  con¬ 
solidated  them  into  a  single  nation,  and  then  wielded 
their  mighty  and  enthusiastic  forces  against  Syria,  Persia, 
and  North  Africa,  triumphant  wherever  they  moved.  He, 
certainly,  if  ever  man  possessed  it,  had  the  rare  gift  of 
natural  empire.  To  him,  more  than  to  any  other  of 
whom  history  makes  mention,  was  given 

**  The  monarch  mind,  the  mystery  of  commanding, 

The  birth-hour  gift,  the  art  Napoleon, 

Of  wielding,  moulding,  gathering,  welding,  banding, 

The  hearts  of  thousands  till  they  moved  as  one.” 


454 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


§  3.  Early  Life  of  Mohammed ,  to  the  Hegira. 

But  it  was  not  as  a  soldier  or  ambitious  conqueror  that 
Mohammed  began  his  career.  The  first  forty  years  of  his 
life  were  passed  in  the  quiet  pursuits  of  trade,  or  taking 
care  of  the  property  of  Khadijah.  Serious,  thoughtful, 
devout,  he  made  friends  of  all  about  him.  His  youth  was 
unstained  by  vice,  and  his  honorable  character  early  ob¬ 
tained  for  him  the  title,  given  him  by  common  consent,  of 
A1  Amin,  “  the  faithful.”  At  one  time  he  tended  sheep 
and  goats  on  the  hills  near  Mecca.  At  Medina,  after  he 
became  distinguished,  he  referred  to  this,  saying,  “  Pick  me 
the  blackest  of  those  berries ;  they  are  such  as  I  used  to 
gather  when  I  fed  the  flocks  at  Mecca.  Yerily,  no  prophet 
has  been  raised  up  who  has  not  performed  the  work  of  a 
shepherd.”  When  twenty-five  years  of  age,  he  entered 
into  the  service  of  Khadijah,  a  rich  widow,  as  her  agent, 
to  take  charge  of  her  merchandise  and  to  sell  it  at  Damas¬ 
cus.  When  the  caravan  returned,  and  his  adventure  had 
proved  successful,  Khadijah,  then  forty  years  old,  became 
interested  in  the  young  man;  she  was  wise,  virtuous, 
and  attractive ;  they  were  married,  and,  till  her  death, 
Mohammed  was  a  kind  and  loving  husband.  Khadijah 
sympathized  with  her  husband  in  his  religious  tendencies, 
and  was  his  first  convert  His  habit  was  to  retire  to  a 
cave  on  Mount  Hira  to  pray  and  to  meditate.  Sadness 
came  over  him  in  view  of  the  evils  in  the  world.  One  of 
the  Suras  of  the  Koran,  supposed  to  belong  to  this  period, 
is  as  follows :  — 

Sura  103. 

“  By  the  declining  day  I  swear  ! 

Yerily,  man  is  in  the  way  of  ruin  ; 

Excepting  such  as  possess  faith, 

•  And  do  the  things  which  he  right, 

And  stir  up  one  another  to  truth  and  steadfastness.  ” 

About  this  time  he  began  to  have  his  visions  of  angels, 
especially  of  Gabriel.  He  saw  a  light,  and  heard  a  voice, 
and  had  sentences  like  the  above  put  into  his  mind. 
These  communications  were  accompanied  by  strong  con¬ 
vulsions  (epilepsy,  says  Weil),  in  which  he  would  fall  to 
the  ground  and  foam  at  the  mouth.  Sprenger  considers  it 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


455 


to  have  been  a  form  of  hysteria,  with  a  mental  origin, 
perhaps  accompanied  with  catalepsy.  The  prophet  him¬ 
self  said :  “  Inspiration  descends  on  me  in  two  ways. 
Sometimes  Gabriel  cometh  and  communicateth  the  reve¬ 
lation,  as  one  man  to  another.  This  is  easy.  But  some¬ 
times  it  is  as  the  ringing  of  a  bell,  which  rends  me  in 
pieces,  and  grievously  afflicts  me.”  One  day,  when  Abu 
Bakr  and  Omar  sat  in  the  Mosque  at  Medina,  Mohammed 
came  suddenly  upon  them,  lifting  up  his  beard  and  look¬ 
ing  at  it ;  and  Abu  Bakr  said,  “  Ah  thou,  for  whom  I 
would  sacrifice  father  and  mother  ;  white  hairs  are  hasten¬ 
ing  upon  thee  !  ”  “  Yes,”  said  the  prophet,  “  Hud  ”  (Sura 

11)  “and  its  sisters  have  hastened  my  white  hairs.” 

“  And  who,”  asked  Abu  Bakr,  “  are  its  sisters  ?  ”  “  The 

Inevitable  ”  (Sura  56)  “  and  the  Striking  ”  (Sura  101),  re¬ 
plied  Mohammed.  These  three  are  called  the  “  terrific 
Suras.” 

But  these  last  Suras  came  later  than  the  period  now 
referred  to.  At  this  time  his  visions  and  revelations  pos¬ 
sessed  him;  he  did  not  possess  nor  control  them.  In  later 
years  the  spirit  of  the  prophet  was  more  subject  to  the 
prophet.  But  the  Koran  is  an  unintelligible  book  unless 
we  can  connect  it  with  the  biography  of  its  writer.  All 
the  incidents  of  his  life  took  shape  in  some  revelation.  A 
separate  revelation  was  given  to  encourage  or  to  rebuke 
him ;  and  in  his  later  yeai’3  the  too  subservient  inspiration  * 
came  to  appease  the  jealousy  of  his  wives  when  a  new  one 
was  added  to  their  number.  But,  however  it  may  have 
been  afterward,  in  the  beginning  his  visions  were  as  much 
a  surprise  to  him  as  to  others.  A  careful  distribution  of 
the  Suras,  according  to  the  events  which  befell  him,  would 
make  the  Koran  the  best  biography  of  the  prophet.  As 
we  said  of  David  and  his  Psalms,  so  it  may  be  said  of 
Mohammed,  that  his  life  hangs  suspended  in  these  hymns, 
as  in  votive  pictures,  each  the  record  of  some  grave  ex¬ 
perience.* 

*  “  Quo  fit  ut  omnis 
Votiva  pateat  velut  descripta  tabella 
Yita  senis.” 

Horace. 


T 


456 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Now,  it  is  impossible  to  read  tlie  detailed  accounts  of 
this  part  of  the  life  of  Mohammed,  and  have  any  doubt 
of  his  profound  sincerity.  His  earliest  converts  were  his 
bosom-friends  and  the  people  of  his  household,  who  were 
intimately  acquainted  with  his  private  life.  Nor  does  a 
man  easily  begin  an  ambitious  course  of  deception  at  the 
age  of  forty  ;  having  lived  till  that  time  as  a  quiet,  peace¬ 
ful,  and  unobtrusive  citizen,*  what  was  he  to  gain  by  this 
career  ?  Long  years  passed  before  he  could  make  more 
than  a  handful  of  converts.  During  these  weary  years 
he  was  the  object  of  contumely  and  hatred  to  the  ruling 
tribe  in  Mecca.  His  life  was  hardly  safe  from  them. 
Nothing  could  be  more  hopeless  than  his  position  during 
the  first  twelve  years  of  his  public  preaching.  Only  a 
strong  conviction  of  the  reality  of  his  mission  could  have 
supported  him  through  this  long  period  of  failure,  loneli¬ 
ness,  and  contempt.  During  all  these  years  the  wildest 
imagination  could  not  have  pictured  the  success  which 
was  to  come.  Here  is  a  Sura  in  which  he  finds  comfort 
in  God  and  his  promises  .  — 

Sura  93. 

“  By  the  rising  sunshine  ! 

By  the  night  when  it  darkeneth  ! 

Thy  Lord  hath  not  removed  from  thee,  neither  hath  he  "been  displeased. 

And  verily  the  future  shall  be  better  than  the  past . 

What !  did  he  not  find  thee  an  orphan,  and  give  thee  a  home  ? 

And  found  thee  astray,  and  directed  thee  ?  ” 

In  this  Sura,  Mohammed  refers  to  the  fact  of  the^death 
of  his  mother,  Amina,  in  his  seventh  year,  his  father  hav¬ 
ing  died  a  few  months  before.  He  visited  her  tomb  many 
years  after,  and  lifted  up  his  voice  and  wept.  In  reply  to 
the  questions  of  his  companions,  he  said :  “  This  is  the 
grave  of  my  mother  ;  the  Lord  hath  permitted  me  to  visit 
it,  and  I  asked  leave  to  pray  for  her,  and  it  was  not  grant¬ 
ed.  So  I  called  my  mother  to  remembrance,  and  the 
tender  memory  of  her  overcame  me,  and  I  wept.”  The 
child  had  been  taken  by  his  grandfather,  Abd  al  Mut- 
talib,  then  eighty  years  old,  who  treated  him  with  the 
greatest  indulgence.  At  his  death,  shortly  after,  Moliam- 

*  Tlie  same  remark  will  apply  to  Cromwell. 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


457 


med  was  adopted  by  his  uncle,  Abu  Talib,  the  chief  of  the 
tribe.  Abu  Talib  brought  him  up  like  his  own  son,  mak¬ 
ing  him  sleep  by  his  bed,  eat  by  his  side,  and  go  with  him 
wherever  he  went.  And  when  Mohammed,  assuming  his 
inspired  position,  declared  himself  a  prophet,  his  uncle, 
then  aged  and  universally  respected,  protected  him  from 
his  enemies,  though  Abu  himself  never  accepted  his  teach¬ 
ing.  Mohammed  therefore  had  good  reason  to  bless  the 
Providence  which  had  provided  such  protectors  for  his 
orphaned  infancy. 

Among  the  earliest  converts  of  Mohammed,  after  Kha- 
dijah,  were  his  two  adopted  children,  Ali  and  Zeid.  Ali 
was  the  son  of  his  guardian,  Abu  Talib,  who  had  become 
poor,  and  found  it  hard  to  support  his  family.  Moham¬ 
med,  “  prompted  by  his  usual  kindness  and  consideration,” 
says  Mr.  Muir,  went  to  his  rich  uncle  Abbas,  and  pro¬ 
posed  that  each  of  them  should  adopt  one  of  Abu  Talib’s 
children,  which  was  done.  His  other  adopted  son,  Zeid, 
belonged  to  a  Syrian  tribe,  and  had  been  taken  captive 
by  marauders,  sold  into  slavery,  and  given  to  Khadijah, 
who  presented  him  to  her  husband.  After  a  while  the 
father  of  Zeid  heard  where  he  was,  and  coming  to  Mecca 
offered  a  large  sum  as  ransom  for  his  son.  Mohammed 
had  become  very  fond  of  Zeid,  but  he  called  him,  and 
gave  him  his  choice  to  go  or  stay.  Zeid  said,  “  I  will  not 
leave  thee ;  thou  art  in  the  place  to  me  of  father  and 
mother.”  Then  Mohammed  took  him  to  the  Kaaba,  and 
touching  the  Black  Stone  said,  “  Bear  witness,  all  here ! 
Zeid  is  my  son.  I  shall  ^be  his  heir,  and  he  mine.”  So 
the  father  returned  home  contented,  and  Zeid  was  hence¬ 
forth  known  as  “  Zeid  ibn  Mohammed,”  - —  Zeid,  the  son 
of  Mohammed. 

It  is  reported  that  when  Ali  was  about  thirteen  years 
old  Mohammed  was  one  day  praying  with  him  in  one  of 
the  retired  glens  near  Mecca,  whither  they  had  gone  to 
avoid  the  ridicule  of  their  opponents.  Abu  Talib,  passing 
by,  said/  “  My  nephew  !  what  is  this  new  faith  I  see  thee 
following  ?  ”  “0  my  uncle,”  replied  Mohammed,  “  it  is 

the  religion  of  God,  his  angels  and  prophets,  the  religion 

of  Abraham.  The  Lord  hath  sent  me  as  his  apostle ;  and 

20 


458 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


thou,  uncle,  art  most  worthy  to  be  invited  to  believe.” 
Abu  Talib  replied,  “  I  am  not  able,  my  nephew,  to  sepa¬ 
rate  from  the  customs  of  my  forefathers,  but  I  swear  that 
while  I  live  no  one  shall  trouble  thee.”  Then  he  said  to 
Ali,  “  My  son,  he  will  not  invite  thee  to  anything  which 
is  not  good ;  wherefore  thou  art  free  to  cleave  to  him.” 

Another  early  and  important  convert  was  Abu  Bakr, 
father  of  Mohammed’s  favorite  wife,  Ayesha,  and  after¬ 
ward  the  prophet’s  successor.  Ayesha  said  she  “  could  not 
remember  the  time  when  both  her  parents  were  not  true 
believers.” '  Of  Abu  Bakr,  the  prophet  said,  “  I  never  in¬ 
vited  any  to  the  faith  who  did  not  show  hesitation,  except 
Abu  Bakr.  When  I  proposed  Islam  to  him  he  at  once 
accepted  it.”  He  was  thoughtful,  calm,  tender,  and  firm. 
He  is  still  known  as  “  A1  Sadich,”  the  true  one.  Another 
of  his  titles  is  “the  Second  of  the  Two,”  —  from  having 
been  the  only  companion  of  Mohammed  in  his  flight  from 
Mecca.  Hassan,  the  poet  of  Medina,  thus  says  of  him  :  — 

“  And  the  second  of  the  two  in  the  glorious  cave,  while  the  foes  were 
searching  around,  and  they  two  were  in  the  mountain,  — 

And  the  prophet  of  the  Lord,  they  well  knew,  loved  him  more  than  all 
the  world  ;  he  held  no  one  equal  unto  him.”  * 

Abu  Bakr  was  at  this  time  a  successful  merchant,  and 
possessed  some  forty  thousand  dirhems.  But  he  spent 
most  of  it  in  purchasing  and  giving  freedom  to  Moslem 
slaves,  who  were  persecuted  by  their  masters  for  their  re¬ 
ligion.  He  was  an  influential  man  among  the  Koreish. 
This  powerful  tribe,  the  rulers  of  Mecca,  who  from  the  first 
treated  Mohammed  with  contempt,  gradually  became  vio¬ 
lent  persecutors  of  him  and  his  followers.  Their  main  wrath 
fell  on  the  unprotected  slaves,  whom  they  exposed  to  the 
scorching  sun,  and  who,  in  their  intolerable  thirst,  would 
sometimes  recant,  and  acknowledge  the  idols.  Some  of 
them  remained  firm,  and  afterward  showed  with  triumph 
their  scars.  Mohammed,  Abu  Bakr,  Ali,  and  all  who  were 
connected  with  powerful  families,  were  for  a  long  time 

*  “  Mohammed  once  asked  Hassan  if  he  had  made  any  poetry  about 
Abu  Bakr,  and  the  poet  repeated  these  lines  ;  whereupon  Mohammed 
laughed  so  heartily  as  to  show  his  back  teeth,  and  said,  ‘Thou  hast 
spoken  truly,  0  Hassan  !  It  is  just  as  thou  hast  said.’  '*  —  Muir,  Yol.  II. 
p.  256. 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


459 


safe.  For  the  principal  protection  in  such  a  disorganized 
society  was  the  principle  that  each  tribe  must  defend 
every  one  of  its  members,  at  all  hazards.  Of  course,  Mo¬ 
hammed  was  very  desirous  to  gain  over  members  of  the 
great  families,  but  he  felt  bound  to  take  equal  pains  with 
the  poor  and  helpless,  as  appears  from  the  following  anec¬ 
dote  :  “  The  prophet  was  engaged  in  deep  converse  with 
the  chief  Walid,  for  he  greatly  desired  his  conversion. 
Then  a  blind  man  passed  that  way,  and  asked  to  hear  the 
Koran.  But  Mohammed  was  displeased  with  the  inter¬ 
ruption,  and  turned  from  him  roughly.”  *  But  he  was 
afterward  grieved  to  think  he  had  slighted  one  whom 
God  had  perhaps  chosen,  and  had  paid  court  to  a  repro¬ 
bate.  So  his  remorse  took  the  form  of  a  divine  message 
and  embodied  itself  as  follows  :  — 

“  The  prophet  frowned  and  turned  aside 
Because  the  blind  man  came  to  him. 

Who  shall  tell  thee  if  he  may  not  he  purified  ? 

Or  whether  thy  admonition  might  not  profit  him  ! 

The  rich  man 

Thou  receivest  graciously, 

Although  he  be  not  inwardly  pure. 

But  him  who  cometh  earnestly  inquiring, 

And  trembling  with  anxiety, 

Him  thou  dost  neglect.”  t 

Mohammed  did  not  encourage  his  followers  to  martyr¬ 
dom.  On  the  contrary,  he  allowed  them  to  dissemble  to 
save  themselves.  He  found  one  of  his  disciples  sobbing 
bitterly  because  he  had  been  compelled  by  ill-treatment  to 
abuse  his  master  and  worship  the  idols.  “  But  how  dost 
thou  find  thy  heart  ?  ”  said  the  prophet.  “  Steadfast  in  the 
faith,”  said  he.  “  Then,”  answered  Mohammed,  “  if  they  re¬ 
peat  their  cruelty,  thou  mayest  repeat  thy  words.”  He  also 
had  himself  an  hour  of  vacillation.  Tired  of  the  severe  and 
seemingly  hopeless  struggle  with  the  Koreish,  and  seeing 
no  way  of  overcoming  their  bitter  hostility,  he  bethought 
himself  of  the  method  of  compromise,  more  than  seven 
centuries  before  America  was  discovered.  He  had  been 
preaching  Islam  five  years,  and  had  only  forty  or  fifty 
converts.  Those  among  them  who  had  no  protectors  he 

+  Koran,  Sura  80. 


*  Muir,  Vol.  II.  p.  128. 


460 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


had  advised  to  fly  to  the  Christian  kingdom  of  Abyssinia. 
“  Yonder,”  said  he,  pointing  to  the  west,  “  lies  a  land 
wherein  no  one  is  wronged.  Go  there  and  remain  until 
the  Lord  shall  open  a  way  for  you.”  Some  fifteen  or 
twenty  had  gone,  and  met  with  a  kind  reception.  This 
was  the  first  “  Hegira,”  and  showed  the  strength  of  faith 
in  these  exiles,  who  gave  up  their  country  rather  than 
Islam.  But  they  heard,  before  long,  that  the  Koreish  had 
been  converted  by  Mohammed,  and  they  returned  to 
Mecca.  The  facts  were  these. 

One  day,  when  the  chief  citizens  were  sitting  near  the 
Kaaba,  Mohammed  came,  and  began  to  recite  in  their 
hearing  one  of  the  Suras  of  the  Koran.  In  this  Sura 
three  of  the  goddesses  worshipped  by  the  Koreish  were 
mentioned.  When  he  came  to  their  names  he  added  two 
lines  in  which  he  conceded  that  their  intercession  might 
avail  with  God.  The  Koreish  were  so  delighted  at  this 
acknowledgment  of  their  deities,  that  when  lie  added 
another  line  calling  .on  them  to  worship  Allah,  they  all 
prostrated  themselves  on  the  ground  and  adored  God. 
Then  they  rose,  and  expressed  their  satisfaction,  and 
agreed  to  be  his  followers,  and  receive  Islam,  with  this 
slight  alteration,  that  their  goddesses  and  favorite  idols 
were  to  be  respected.  Mohammed  went  home  and  began 
to  be  unhappy  in  his  mind.  The  compromise,  it  seems, 
lasted  long  enough  for  the  Abyssinian  exiles  to  hear  of  it 
and  to  come  home.  But  at  last  the  prophet  recovered 
himself,  and  took  back  his  concession.  The  verse  of  the 
Sura  was  cancelled,  and  another  inserted,  declaring  that 
these  goddesses  were  only  names,  invented  by  the  idol¬ 
aters.  Ever  after,  the  intercession  of  idols  was  condemned 
with  scorn.  But  Mohammed  records  his  lapse  thus  in  the 
seventeenth  Sura  of  the  Koran :  — 

“And  truly,  they  were  near  tempting  thee  from  what  we  taught  thee,  that 
thou  shouldst  invent  a  different  revelation  ;  and  then  they  would 
have  inclined  unto  thee. 

And  if  we  had  not  strengthened  thee,  verily  thou  hadst  inclined  to 
them  a  little. 

Then  thou  shouldst  not  have  found  against  us  any  helper.” 

After  this,  naturally,  the  persecution  became  hotter 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


461 


than  ever.  A  second  body  of  exiles  went  to  Abyssinia. 
Had  not  the  venerable  Abu  Talib  protected  Mohammed, 
his  life  might  have  been  lost.  As  it  was,  the  persecutors 
threatened  the  old  man  with  deadly  enmity  unless  he 
gave  up  Mohammed.  But  Abu  Talib,  though  agreeing 
with  them  in  their  religion,  and  worshipping  their  gods, 
refused  to  surrender  his  nephew  to  them.  Once,  when 
Mohammed  had  disappeared,  and  his  uncle  suspected 
that  the  Koreish  had  seized  him,  he  armed  a  party  of 
Hashimite  youths  with  dirks,  and  went  to  the  Kaaba,  to 
the  Koreish.  But  on  the  way  he  heard  that  Mohammed 
was  found.  Then,  in  the  presence  of  the  Koreish,  he  told 
his  young  men  to  draw  their  dirks,  and  said,  “  By  the 
Lord !  had  ye  killed  him,  not  one  of  you  had  remained 
alive.”  This  boldness  cowed  their  violence  for  a  time. 
But  as  the  unpopularity  of  Mohammed  increased,  he  and 
all  his  party  were  obliged  to  take  refuge  with  the  Hashi- 
mites  in  a  secluded  quarter  of  the  city  belonging  to  Abu 
Talib.  The  conversion  of  Omar  about  this  time  only  in¬ 
creased  their  rage.  They  formed  an  alliance  against  the 
Hashimites,  agreeing  that  they  would  neither  buy  nor  sell, 
marry,  nor  have  any  dealings  with  them.  This  oath  was 
committed  to  writing,  sealed,  and  hung  up  in  the  Kaaba 
Bor  two  or  three  years  the  Hashimites  remained  shut  up 
in  their  fortress,  and  often  deprived  of  the  necessaries 
of  life.  Their  friends  would  sometimes  secretly  supply 
them  with  provisions  ;  but  the  cries  of  the  hungry  chil¬ 
dren  would  often  be  heard  by  those  outside.  They  were 
blockaded  in  their  intrencliments.  But  many  of  the  chief 
people  in  Mecca  began  to  be  moved  by  pity,  and  at  last  it 
was  suggested  to  Abu  Talib  that  the  bond  hung  up  in  the 
Kaaba  had  been  eaten  by  the  ants,  so  as  to  be  no  longer 
valid.  This  being  found  to  be  the  case,  it  was  decided 
that  the  league  was  at  an  end,  and  the  Hashimites  re¬ 
turned  to  their  homes.  But  other  misfortunes  were  in 
store  for  Mohammed.  The  good  Abu  Talib  soon  died,  and, 
not  long  after,  Khadijah.  His  protector  gone,  what  could 
Mohammed  do  ?  He  left  the  city,  and  went  with  only 
Zeid  for  a  companion  on  a  mission  to  Tayif,  sixty  or  sev¬ 
enty  miles  east  of  Mecca,  in  hopes  of  converting  the  in- 


/ 


462  TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 

habitants.  Who  can  think  of  the  prophet,  in  this  lonely 
journey,  without  sympathy  ?  He  was  going  to  preach 
the  doctrine  of  One  God  to  idolaters.  But  he  made  no 
impression  on  them,  and,  as  he  left  the  town,  was  followed 
by  a  mob,  hooting,  and  pelting  him  with  stones.  At  last 
they  left  him,  and  in  the  shadow  of  some  trees  he  betook 
himself  to  prayer.  His  words  have  been  preserved,  it  is 
believed  by  the  Moslems,  and  are  as  follows  :  “  0  Lord  !  I 
make  my  complaint  unto  thee  of  the  feebleness  of  my 
strength,  and  the  weakness  of  my  plans.  I  am  insig¬ 
nificant  in  the  sight  of  men.  O  thou  most  merciful! 
Lord  of  the  weak  !  Thou  art  my  Lord  !  Do  not  abandon 
me.  Leave  me  not  a  prey  to  these  strangers,  nor  to  my 
foes.  If  thou  art  not  offended,  I  am  safe.  I  seek  refuge 
in  the  light  of  thy  countenance,  by  which  all  darkness  is 
dispersed,  and  peace  comes.  There  is  no  power,  no  help, 
but  in  thee.”  In  that  hour  of  prayer,  the  faith  of  Moham¬ 
med  was  the  same  as  that  of  Luther  praying  for  protection 
against  the  Pope.  It  was  a  part  of  the  universal  religion 
of  human  nature.  Certainly  this  man  was  no  impostor. 
A  man,  going  alone  to  summon  an  idolatrous  city  to  re¬ 
pentance,  must  at  least  have  believed  in  his  own  doctrine. 

But  the  hour  of  success  was  at  hand.  No  amount  of 
error,  no  bitterness  of  prejudice,  no  vested  interest  in  false¬ 
hood,  can  resist  the  determined  conviction  of  a  single  soul. 
Only  believe  a  truth  strongly  enough  to  hold  it  through 
good  report  and  ill  report,  and  at  last  the  great  world  of 
half-believers  comes  round  to  you.  And  usually  the  suc¬ 
cess  comes  suddenly  at  last,  after  weary  years  of  disap¬ 
pointment.  The  great  tree,  which  seems  so  solid  and  firm, 
has  been  secretly  decaying  within,  and  is  hollow  at  heart ; 
at  last  it  falls  in  a  moment,  filling  the  forest  with  the 
echoes  of  its  ruin.  The  dam,  which  seems  strong  enough 
to  resist  a  torrent,  has  been  slowly  undermined  by  a  thou¬ 
sand  minute  rills  of  water ;  at  last  it  is  suddenly  swept 
away,  and  opens  a  yawning  breach  for  the  tumbling  cata¬ 
ract.  And  almost  as  suddenly  came  the  triumph  of  Mo¬ 
hammed. 

At  Medina  and  in  its  neighborhood  there  had  long  been 
numerous  and  powerful  tribes  of  Jewish  proselytes.  In 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


463 


their  conflicts  with  the  idolaters,  they  had  often  predicted 
the  speedy  coming  of  a  prophet  like  Moses.  The  Jewish 
influence  was  great  at  Medina,  and  that  of  the  idolaters 
was  divided  by  hitter  quarrels.  Now  it  must  be  remem¬ 
bered  that  at  this  time  Mohammed  taught  a  kind  of 
modified  Judaism.  He  came  to  revive  the  religion  of 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob.  He  continually  referred  to 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  Talmud  for  authority.  He  was 
a  prophet  and  inspired,  but  not  to  teach  anything  new. 
He  was  to  restore  the  universal  religion  which  God  had 
taught  to  man  in  the  beginning,  —  the  religion  of  all  true 
patriarchs  and  prophets.  Its  essential  doctrine  was  the 
unity  of  God,  and  his  supremacy  and  providence.  Its  one 
duty  was  Islam,  or  submission  to  the  Divine  will!  Its  wor¬ 
ship  was  prayer  and  almsgiving.  At  this  time  he  did  not 
make  belief  in  himself  the  main  point ;  it  was  to  profess 
the  unity  of  God,  and  to  submit  wholly  to  God.  So  that 
the  semi- Judaized  pilgrims  from  Medina  to  Mecca  were 
quite  prepared  to  accept  his  teachings.  Mohammed,  at 
the  time  of  the  pilgrimage,  met  with  many  of  them,  and 
they  promised  to  become  his  disciples.  The  pledge  they 
took  was  as  follows :  “We  will  not  worship  any  but  the 
one  God  ;  we  will  not  steal,  nor  commit  adultery,  nor  kill 
our  children  (female) :  we  wdll  not  slander  at  all,  nor  dis¬ 
obey  the  prophet  in  anything  that  is  right.”  This  was 
afterward  called  the  “  Pledge  of  Women,”  because  it  did 
not  require  them  to  fight  for  Islam.  This  faith  spread 
rapidly  among  the  idolaters  at  Medina,  —  much  more  so 
than  the  Jewish  system.  The  Jews  required  too  much  of 
their  proselytes  ;  they  insisted  on  their  becoming  Jews. 
They  demanded  a  change  of  all  their  previous  customs. 
But  Mohammed  only  asked  for  submission. 

About  this  time  Mohammed  had  his  famous  dream  or 
vision,  in  which  he  was  carried  by  Gabriel  on  a  winged 
steed  to  Jerusalem,  to  meet  all  the  prophets  of  God  and 
be  welcomed  by  them  to  their  number,  and  then  to  the 
seventh  heaven  into  the  presence  of  God.  It  was  so  vivid 
that  he  deemed  it  a  reality,  and  maintained  that  he  had 
been  to  Jerusalem  and  to  heaven.  This,  and  the  Koran 
itself,  were  the  only  miracles  he  ever  claimed. 


464 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  Medina  Moslems  having  entered  into  a  second 
pledge,  to  receive  Mohammed  and  his  friends,  and  to  pro¬ 
tect  them,  the  prophet  gave  orders  to  his  followers  to  leave 
Mecca  secretly  in  small  parties,  and  repair  to  Medina.  As 
the  stout  sea-captain  remains  the  last  on  a  sinking  vessel, 
Mohammed  stayed  quietly  at  Mecca  till  all  the  others  had 
gone.  Only  Abu  Bakr’s  family  and  his  own  remained. 
The  rest  of  the  believers,  to  the  number  of  about  two  hun¬ 
dred,  had  disappeared. 

The  Koreish,  amazed  at  these  events,  knew  not  what  to 
do.  Why  had  the  Moslems  gone  ?  and  why  had  Moham¬ 
med  remained  ?  How  dared  he  to  stay,  unprotected,  in 
their  midst  ?  They  might  kill  him  ;  —  but  then  his  tribe 
would  take  a  bloody  vengeance  on  his  murderers.  At 
last  they  proposed  to  seize  him,  and  that  a  number  of 
men,  one  from  each  tribe  and  family,  should  at  the  same 
moment  drive  their  dirks  into  him.  Or  perhaps  it  might 
be  better  to  send  an  assassin  to  waylay  him  on  his  way  to 
Medina.  While  they  were  discussing  these  alternatives, 
news  was  brought  to  them  that  Mohammed  also  had  dis¬ 
appeared,  and  Abu  Bakr  with  him.  They  immediately 
went  to  their  houses.  In  that  of  Mohammed  they  found 
the  young  Ali,  who,  being  asked  where  his  father  was,  re¬ 
plied,  “  I  do  not  know.  I  am  not  his  keeper.  Did  you 
not  order  him  to  go  from  the  city  ?  I  suppose  he  is  gone.” 
Getting  no  more  information  at  the  house  of  Abu  Bakr, 
they  sent  out  parties  of  armed  men,  mounted  on  swift 
horses  and  camels,  to  search  the  whole  route  to  Medina, 
and  bring  the  fugitives  back.  After  a  few  days  the  pur¬ 
suers  returned,  saying  that  there  were  no  signs  of  any 
persons  having  gone  in  that  direction.  If  they  had  gone 
that  way  they  would  certainly  have  overtaken  them. 

Meantime  where  were  the  fugitives  ?  Instead  of  going 
north  to  Medina,  they  had  hidden  in  a  cave  on  a  moun¬ 
tain,  about  five  or  six  miles  to  the  south  of  Mecca.  Here 
they  remained  concealed  three  days  and  nights,  in  immi¬ 
nent  danger  from  their  pursuers,  who  once,  it  is  said,  came 
to  the  mouth  of  the  cave,  but,  seeing  spiders’  webs  spun 
across  the  opening,  concluded  no  one  could  have  gone  in 
recently.  There  was  a  crevice  in  the  roof  through  which 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


465 


the  morning  light  entered,  and  Abu  Bakr  said,  “  If  one 
of  them  were  to  look  down,  he  would  see  us.”  “  Think 
not  so,  Abu  Bakr,”  said  the  prophet.  “  We  are  two,  but 
God  is  in  the  midst,  a  third.” 

The  next  day,  satisfied  that  the  heat  of  the  pursuit  had 
abated,  they  took  the  camels  which  had  privately  been 
brought  to  them  from  the  city  by  the  son  of  Abu  Bakr, 
and  set  off  for  Medina,  leaving  Mecca  on  the  right.  By 
the  calculations  of  M.  Caussin  de  Perceval,  it  was  on  the 
20th  of  June,  A.  D.  622. 

§  4.  Change  in  the  Character  of  Mohammed  after  the 

Hegira. 

From  the  Hegira  the  Mohammedan  era  begins ;  and 
from  that  point  of  the  prophet’s  history  his  fortunes  rise, 
but  his  character  degenerates.  He  has  borne  adversity  and 
opposition  with  a  faith  and  a  patience  almost  sublime ; 
but  prosperity  he  will  not  bear  so  well.  Down  to  that 
time  he  had  been  a  prophet,  teaching  God’s  truth  to  those 
who  would  receive  it,  and  by  the  manifestation  of  that 
truth  commending  himself  to  every  man’s  conscience. 
Now  he  was  to  become  a  politician,  the  head  of  a  party, 
contriving  expedients  for  its  success.  Before,  his  only 
weapon  was  truth ;  now,  his  chief  means  was  force.  In¬ 
stead  of  convincing  his  opponents,  he  now  compelled 
them  to  submit  by  the  terror  of  his  power.  His  revela¬ 
tions  changed  their  tone  ;  they  adapted  themselves  to  his 
needs,  and  on  all  occasions,  even  when  he  wanted  to  take 
an  extra  wife,  inspiration  came  to  his  aid. 

What  sadder  tragedy  is  there  than  to  see  a  great  soul 
thus  conquered  by  success  ?  “  All  these  things,”  says  Sa¬ 

tan,  “  I  will  give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship 
me.”  When  Jesus  related  his  temptation  to  his  disciples 
he  put  it  in  the  form  of  a  parable.  How  could  they,  how 
can  we,  understand  the  temptations  of  a  nature  like  that 
of  Christ !  Perhaps  he  saw  that  he  could  have  a  great 
apparent  success  by  the  use  of  worldly  means.  He  could, 
bring  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile  to  acknowledge  and  receive: 
his  truth.  Some  slight  concession  to  worldly  wisdom,. 

20  *  D  D 


46G 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


some  little  compromise  with  existing  errors,  some  hardly 
perceptible  variation  from  perfect  truthfulness,  and  lo ! 
the  kingdom  of  God  would  come  in  that  very  hour,  in¬ 
stead  of  lingering  through  long  centuries.  What  evils 
might  not  be  spared  to  the  race,  what  woes  to  the  world, 
if  the  divine  gospel  of  love  to  God  and  man  were  inaugu¬ 
rated  by  Christ  himself !  This,  perhaps,  was  one  of  the 
temptations.  But  Jesus  said,  “  Get  thee  behind  me, 
Satan.”  He  would  use  only  good  means  for  good  ends. 
He  would  take  God’s  way  to  do  God’s  work.  He  would 
die  on  the  cross,  but  not  vary  from  the  perfect  truth. 
The  same  temptation  came  to  Mohammed,  and  he  yielded. 
Up  to  the  Hegira,  Mohammed  might  also  have  said,  “  My 
kingdom  is  not  of  this  world.”  But  now  the  sword  and 
falsehood  were  to  serve  him,  as  his  most  faithful  servants, 
in  building  up  Islam.  His  ends  were  the  same  as  before. 
His  object  was  still  to  establish  the  service  of  the  one 
living  and  true  God.  But  his  means ,  henceforth,  are  of 
the  earth,  earthy. 

What  a  noble  religion  would  Islam  have  been,  if 
Mohammed  could  have  gone  on  as  he  began !  He  ac¬ 
cepted  all  the  essential  truths  of  Judaism,  he  recognized 
Moses  and  Christ  as  true  teachers.  He  taught  that  there 
was  one  universal  religion,  the  substance  of  which  was 
faith  in  one  Supreme  Being,  submission  to  his  will,  trust 
in  his  providence,  and  good-will  to  his  creatures.  Prayer 
and  alms  were  the  only  worship  which  God  required.  A 
marvellous  and  mighty  work,  says  Mr.  Muir,  had  been 
wrought  by  these  few  precepts.  From  time  beyond 
memory  Mecca  and  the  whole  peninsula  had  been  steeped 
in  spiritual  torpor.  The  influences  of  Judaism,  Christian¬ 
ity,  and  philosophy  had  been  feeble  and  transient.  Dark 
superstitions  prevailed,  the  mothers  of  dark  vices.  And 
now,  in  thirteen  years  of  preaching,  a  body  of  men  and 
women  had  risen,  who  rejected  idolatry ;  worshipped  the 
one  great  God ;  lived  lives  of  prayer ;  practised  chastity, 
benevolence,  and  justice ;  and  were  ready  to  do  and  to 
bear  everything  for  the  truth.  All  this  came  from  the 
depth  of  conviction  in  the  soul  of  this  one  man. 

To  the  great  qualities  which  Mohammed  had  shown  as 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


467 


a  prophet  and  religious  teacher  were  now  added  those  of 
the  captain  and  statesman.  He  had  at  last  obtained  a 
position  at  Medina  whence  he  could  act  on  the  Arabs 
with  other  forces  than  those  of  eloquence  and  feeling. 
And  now  the  man  who  for  forty  years  had  been  a  simple 
citizen  and  led  a  quiet  family  life  —  who  afterward,  for 
thirteen  years,  had  been  a  patient  but  despised  teacher  of 
the  unity  of  God  —  passed  the  last  ten  years  of  his 
strange  career  in  building  up  a  fanatical  army  of  warriors, 
destined  to  conquer  half  the  civilized  world.  From  this 
period  the  old  solution  of  the  Mohammedan  miracle  is  in 
order ;  from  this  time  the  sword  leads,  and  the  Horan 
follows.  To  this  familiar  explanation  of  Mohammedan 
success,  Mr.  Carlyle  replies  with  the  question :  “  Moham¬ 
medanism  triumphed  with  the  sword  ?  But  where  did  it 
get  its  sword  ?  ”  We  can  now  answer  that  pithy  inquiry. 
The  simple,  earnest  zeal  of  the  original  believers  built  up 
a  power,  which  then  took  the  sword,  and  conquered  with 
it.  The  reward  of  patient,  long-enduring  faith  is  in¬ 
fluence  ;  with  this  influence  ambition  serves  itself  for  its 
own  purpose.  Such  is,  more  or  less,  the  history  of  every 
religion,  and,  indeed,  of  every  political  party.  Sects  are 
founded,  not  by  politicians,  but  by  men  of  faith,  by  men 
to  whom  ideas  are  realities,  by  men  who  are  willing  to 
die  for  them.  Such  faith  always  triumphs  at  last ;  it 
makes  a  multitude  of  converts  ;  it  becomes  a  great  power. 
The  deep  and  strong  convictions  thus  created  are  used  by 
worldly  men  for  their  own  purposes.  That  the  Moham¬ 
medan  impulse  was  thus  taken  possession  of  by  worldly 
men  is  the  judgment  of  M.  Benan.*  “  From  all  sides,” 
says  he,  “  we  come  to  this  singular  result :  that  the  Mus¬ 
sulman  movement  was  started  almost  without  religious 
faith  ;  that,  setting  aside  a  small  number  of  faithful  dis¬ 
ciples,  Mahomet  really  wrought  very  little  conviction  in 
Arabia.”  “  The  party  of  true  Mussulmans  had  all  their 
strength  in  Omar ;  but  after  his  assassination,  that  is  to 
say,  twelve  years  after  the  death  of  the  prophet,  the 
opposite  party  triumphed  by  the  election  of  Othman.” 

*  Mahomet  and  the  Origin  .of  Islam.  Studies  of  Religious  History. 
Translated  by  0.  B.  Frothingham. 


4C8 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


“The  first  generation  of  the  Hegira  was  completely  oc¬ 
cupied  in  exterminating  the  primitive  Mussulmans,  the 
true  fathers  of  Islamism.”  Perhaps  it  is  hold  to  question 
the  opinions  of  a  Semitic  scholar  of  the  force  of  M. 
Benan,  hut  it  seems  to  us  that  he  goes  too  far  in  suppos¬ 
ing  that  such  a  movement  as  that  of  Islam  could  he 
started  without  a  tremendous  depth  of  conviction.  At  all 
events,  supported  hy  such  writers  as  Weil,  Sprenger,  and 
Muir,  we  will  say  that  it  was  a  powerful  religious  move¬ 
ment  founded  on  sincerest  conviction,  hut  gradually  turned 
aside,  and  used  for  worldly  purposes  and  temporal  tri¬ 
umphs.  And,  in  thus  diverting  it  from  divine  objects 
to  purely  human  ones,  Mohammed  himself  led  the  way. 
He  adds  another,  and  perhaps  the  greatest,  illustration  to 
the  long  list  of  nohle  souls  whose  natures  have  become 
subdued  to  that  which  they  worked  in ;  who  have  sought 
high  ends  hy  low  means  ;  who,  talking  of  the  noblest 
truths,  descend  into  the  meanest  prevarications,  and  so 
throw  a  doubt  on  all  sincerity,  faith,  and  honor.  Such 
was  the  judgment  of  a  great  thinker —  Goethe  —  concern¬ 
ing  Mohammed.  He  believes  him  to  have  been  at  first 
profoundly  sincere,  but  he  says  of  him  that  afterward 
“  what  in  his  character  is  earthly  increases  and  develops 
itself ;  the  divine  retires  and  is  obscured  :  his  doctrine 
becomes  a  means  rather  than  an  end.  All  kinds  of  prac¬ 
tices  are  employed,  nor  are  horrors  wanting.”  Goethe  in¬ 
tended  to  write  a  drama  upon  Mohammed,  to  illustrate 
the  sad  fact  that  every  man  who  attempts  to  realize  a 
great  idea  comes  in  contact  with  the  lower  world,  must 
place  himself  on  its  level  in  order  to  influence  it,  and  thus 
often  compromises  his  higher  aims,  and  at  last  forfeits 
them.*  Such  a  man,  in  modern  times,  was  Lord  Bacon 
in  the  political  world  ;  such  a  man,  among  conquerors, 
was  Cromwell ;  and  among  Christian  sects  how  often  do 
we  see  the  young  enthusiast  and  saint  end  as  the  ambi¬ 
tious  self-seeker  and  Jesuit!  Then  we  call  him  a  hypo¬ 
crite,  because  he  continues  to  use  the  familiar  language 
of  the  time  when  his  heart  was  true  and  simple,  though 
indulging  himself  in  luxury  and  sin.  It  is  curious, 

*  Lewes,  Life  of  Goethe,  Vol.  I.  p.  207. 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


469 


when  we  are  all  so  inconsistent,  that  we  should  find  it  so 
hard  to  understand  inconsistency.  We,  all  of  us,  often 
say  what  is  right  and  do  what  is  wrong ;  but  are  we  de¬ 
liberate  hypocrites  ?  No  !  we  know  that  we  are  weak  ; 
we  admit  that  we  are  inconsistent ;  we  say  amen  to  the 
“  video  meliora,  proboque, —  deteriora  sequor,”  but  we 
also  know  that  we  are  not  deliberate  and  intentional 
hypocrites.  Let  us  use  the  same  large  judgment  in 
speaking  of  the  faults  of  Cromwell,  Bacon,  and  Moham¬ 
med. 

No  one  could  have  foreseen  the  cruelty  of  which 
Mohammed,  hitherto  always  a  kind-hearted  and  affec¬ 
tionate  man,  was  capable  toward  those  who  resisted  his 
purpose.  This  first  showed  itself  in  his  treatment  of  the 
Jews.  He  hoped  to  form  an  alliance  with  them,  against 
the  idolaters.  He  had  admitted  the  divine  authority  of 
their  religion,  and  appealed  to  their  Scriptures  as  evidence 
of  the  truth  of  his  own  mission.  He  conformed  to  their 
ritual  and  customs,  and  made  Jerusalem  his  Kibla,  toward 
which  he  turned  in  prayer  five  times  a  day.  In  return 
for  this  he  expected  them  to  receive  him  as  a  prophet; 
but  this  they  refused  to  do.  So  he  departed  by  degrees 
from  their  customs,  changed  his  Kibla  to  Mecca,  and  at 
last  denounced  the  Jews  as  stiff-necked  unbelievers.  The 
old  quarrel  between  Esau  and  Jacob  could  not  be  ap¬ 
peased,  nor  an  alliance  formed  between  them. 

M.  Saint-Hilaire  *  does  not  think  that  the  character  of 
Mohammed  changed  when  he  became  the  founder  of  a 
state  and  head  of  a  conquering  party.  He  thinks  “  that 
he  only  yielded  to  the  political  necessities  of  his  position.” 
Granted ;  but  yielding  to  those  necessities  was  the  cause 
of  this  gradual  change  in  his  character.  The  man  who 
lies  and  murders  from  the  necessity  of  his  political  posi¬ 
tion  can  hardly  remain  a  saint.  Plunder,  cold-blooded 
execution  of  prisoners,  self-indulgence,  became  the  habit 
of  the  prophet  henceforth,  as  we  shall  presently  see. 

The  first  battle  against  the  Koreisli,  that  of  Badr,  took 
place  in  January,  a.  d.  624.  When  Mohammed  had 

*  Mahomet  et  le  Coran,  par  J.  Barthelemy  Saint-Hilaire,  Paris,  1865, 
p.  114. 


470 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


drawn  up  his  army,  he  prayed  earnestly  for  the  victory. 
After  a  desperate  struggle,  the  Koreish  tied.  Mohammed 
claimed,  by  a  special  revelation,  the  fifth  part  of  the 
booty.  As  the  bodies  of  his  old  opponents  were  cast  into 
a  pit,  he  spoke  to  them  bitterly.  When  the  prisoners 
were  brought  before  him  he  looked  fiercely  at  one  of 
them.  “  There  is  death  in  that  glance,”  said  the  unhappy 
man,  and  presently  the  prophet  ordered  him  to  be  be¬ 
headed.  Two  days  after,  another  was  ordered  for  execu¬ 
tion.  “  Who  will  take  care  of  my  little  girl  ?  ”  said  he. 
“  Hell-fire,”  replied  Mohammed,  and  ordered  him  to  be 
cut  down.  Shortly  after  the  battle,  a  Jewess  who  had 
written  verses  against  Mohammed,  was  assassinated  by 
one  of  his  followers ;  and  the  prophet  praised  him  for  the 
deed  in  the  public  mosque.  Another  aged  Jew,  for  the 
same  offence,  was  murdered  by  his  express  command.  A 
quarrel  between  some  Jews  and  Moslems  brought  on 
an  attack  by  Mohammed  upon  the  Jewish  tribe.  They 
surrendered  after  a  siege  of  fifteen  days,  and  Mohammed 
ordered  all  the  prisoners  to  be  killed ;  but  at  last,  at  the 
urgent  request  of  a  powerful  chief  in  Medina,  allowed 
them  to  go  into  exile,  cursing  them  and  their  intercessor. 
Mr.  Muir  mentions  other  cases  of  assassination  of  the 
Jews  by  the  command  of  the  prophet.  All  these  facts 
are  derived  from  contemporaneous  Moslem  historians, 
who  glorify  their  prophet  for  this  conduct.  The  worst 
action  perhaps  of  this  kind  was  the  deliberate  execution 
of  seven  or  eight  hundred  Jewish  prisoners,  who  had 
surrendered  at  discretion,  and  the  sale  of  their  wives  and 
children  into  slavery.  Mohammed  selected  from  among 
these  women  one  more  beautiful  than  the  rest,  for  his 
concubine.  Whether  M.  Saint-Hilaire  considers  all  this 
as  “yielding  to  the  political  necessities  of  his  position,” 
we  do  not  know.  But  this  man,  who  could  stand  by  and 
see  hundreds  of  captives  slaughtered  in  cold  blood,  and 
then  retire  to  solace  himself  with  the  widow  of  one  of 
his  victims,  seems  to  us  to  have  retained  little  of  his 
early  purity  of  soul. 

About  this  time  Mohammed  began  to  multiply  wives, 
and  to  receive  revelations  allowing  him  to  do  so  beyond 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


471 


the  usual  limit  of  his  law.  He  added  one  after  another 
to  his  harem,  until  he  had  ten  wives,  besides  his  slaves. 
His  views  on  such  subjects  are  illustrated  by  his  pre¬ 
senting  three  beautiful  female  slaves,  taken  in  war,  one  to 
his  father-in-law,  and  the  others  to  his  two  sons-in-law. 

So,  in  a  series  of  battles,  with  the  Jewish  tribes,  the 
Koreish,  the  Syrians,  passed  the  stormy  and  triumphant 
years  of  the  Pontiff  King.  Mecca  was  conquered,  and 
the  Koreish  submitted  in  A.  D.  630.  The  tribes  through¬ 
out  Arabia  acquiesced,  one  by  one,  in  the  prophet’s 
authority.  All  paid  tribute,  or  accepted  Islam.  His 
enemies  were  all  under  his  feet ;  his  doctrines  accepted ; 
the  rival  prophets,  As  wad  and  Museilama,  overcome. 
Then,  in  the  sixty-third  year  of  his  age,  death  drew  near. 
On  the  last  day  of  his  life,  he  went  into  the  mosque  to 
attend  morning  prayer,  then  back  to  the  room  of  his 
favorite  wife,  Ayesha,  and  died  in  her  arms.  Wild  with 
grief,  Omar  declared  he  was  not  dead,  but  in  a  trance. 
The  grave  Abu  Bakr  composed  the  excited  multitude,  and 
was  chosen  caliph,  or  successor  to  the  prophet.  Moham¬ 
med  died  on  June  8,  A.  D.  632,  and  was  buried  the  next 
day,  amid  the  grief  of  his  followers.  Abu  Bakr  and 
Omar  offered  the  prayer :  cf  Peace  be  unto  thee,  0  prophet 
of  God  ;  and  the  mercy  of  the  Lord,  and  his  blessing ! 
We  bear  testimony  that  the  prophet  of  God  hath  delivered 
the  message  revealed  to  him  ;  hath  fought  in  the  ways  of 
the  Lord  until  God  crowned  his  religion  with  victory ; 
hath  fulfilled  his  words  commanding  that  he  alone  is  to 
be  worshipped  in  unity ;  hath  drawn  us  to  himself,  and 
been  kind  and  tender-hearted  to  believers ;  hath  sought 
no  recompense  for  delivering  to  us  the  faith,  neither  hath 
sold  it  for  a  price  at  any  time.”  And  all  the  people  said, 
“  Amen  !  Amen  !” 

Concerning  the  character  of  Mohammed,  enough  has 
been  already  said.  He  was  a  great  man,  one  of  the 
greatest  ever  sent  upon  earth.  He  was  a  man  of  the 
deepest  convictions,  and  for  many  years  of  the  purest 
purposes,  and  was  only  drawn  down  at  last  by  using  low 
means  for  a  good  end.  Of  his  visions  and  revelations, 


472 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


the  same  explanation  is  to  be  given  as  of  those  received  by 
Joan  of  Arc,  and  other  seers  of  that  order.  How  far  they 
had  an  objective  basis  in  reality,  and  how  far  they  were 
the  result  of  some  abnormal  activity  of  the  imagination, 
it  is  difficult  with  our  present  knowledge  to  decide.  But 
that  these  visionaries  fully  believed  in  their  own  inspira¬ 
tion,  there  can  be  little  doubt. 

§  5.  Religious  Doctrines  and  Practices  among  the  Moham¬ 
medans . 

As  to  the  religion  of  Mohammed,  and  its  effects  on  the 
world,  it  is  easier  to  come  to  an  opinion  than  concerning 
his  own  character.  Its  essential  doctrine,  as  before  indi¬ 
cated,  is  the  absolute  unity  and  supremacy  of  God,  as 
opposed  to  the  old  Arab  Polytheism  on  the  one  hand  and 
the  Christian  Trinity  on  the  other.  It  however  admits 
of  angels  and  genii.  Gabriel  and  Michael  are  the  angels 
of  power ;  Azriel,  angel  of  death ;  Israfeel,  angel  of  the 
resurrection.  Eblis,  or  Satan,  plays  an  important  part  in 
this  mythology.  The  Koran  also  teaches  the  doctrine  of 
Eternal  Decrees,  or  absolute  Predestination ;  of  prophets 
before  Mohammed,  of  whom  he  is  the  successor,  —  as 
Adam,  Noah,  Moses,  and  Jesus  ;  of  sacred  books,  of  which 
all  that  remain  are  the  Pentateuch,  Psalms,  Gospels,  and 
Koran  ;  of  an  intermediate  state  after  death  ;  of  the  resur¬ 
rection  and  judgment.  All  non-believers  in  Islam  go  into 
eternal  fire.  There  are  separate  hells  for  Christians,  Jews, 
Sabians,  Magians,  idolaters,  and  the  hypocrites  of  all  relig¬ 
ions.  The  Moslem  is  judged  by  his  actions.  A  balance 
is  held  by  Gabriel,  one  scale  hanging  over  heaven  and 
another  over  hell,  and  his  good  deeds  are  placed  in  one 
and  his  bad  ones  in  the  other.  According  as  his  scale 
inclines,  he  goes  to  heaven  or  hell.  If  he  goes  to  heaven, 
lie  finds  there  seventy-two  Houris,  more  beautiful  than 
angels,  awaiting  him,  with  gardens,  groves,  marble  palaces, 
and  music.  If  women  are  true  believers  and  righteous, 
they  will  also  go  to  heaven,  but  nothing  is  said  about 
husbands  being  provided  for  them.  Stress  is  laid  on 
prayer,  ablution,  fasting,  almsgiving,  and  the  pilgrimage 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


473 


» 


to  Mecca.  Wine  and  gaming  are  forbidden.  There  is  no 
recognition,  in  the  Koran,  of  human  brotherhood.  It  is  a 
prime  duty  to  hate  infidels  and  make  war  on  them.  Mo¬ 
hammed  made  it  a  duty  for  Moslems  to  betray  and  kill 
their  own  brothers  when  they  were  infidels  ;  and  he  was 
obeyed  in  more  cases  than  one.  The  Moslem  sects  are  as 
numerous  as  those  of  Christians.  The  Dabistan  mentions 
seventy-three.  The  two  main  divisions  are  into  Sunnites 
and  Shyites.  The  Persians  are  mostly  Shyites,  and  refuse 
to  receive  the  Sunnite  traditions.  They  accept  Ali,  and 
denounce  Omar.  Terrible  wars  and  cruelties  have  taken 
place  between  these  sects.  Only  a  few  of  the  Sunnite 
doctors  acknowledge  the  Shyites  to  be  Moslems.  They 
have  a  saying,  “  to  destroy  a  Sliyite  is  more  acceptable  than 
to  kill  seventy  other  infidels  of  whatever  sort.” 

The  Turks  are  the  most  zealous  of  the  Moslems.  On 
Friday,  which  is  the  Sabbath  of  Islam,  all  business  is  sus¬ 
pended.  Prayers  are  read  and  sermons  preached  in  the 
mosques.  No  one  is  allowed  to  be  absent.  The  Eamadan 
fast  is  universally  kept.  Any  one  who  breaks  it  twice  is 
considered  worthy  of  death.  The  fast  lasts  from  sunrise 
to  sunset.  But  the  rich  feast  in  the  night,  and  sleep  dur¬ 
ing  the  day.  The  Turks  have  no  desire  to  make  prose¬ 
lytes,  but  have  an  intolerant  hatred  for  all  outside  of 
Islam.  The  Kalif  is  the  Chief  Pontiff.  The  Oulema,  or 
Parliament,  is  composed  of  the  Imans,  or  religious  teach¬ 
ers,  the  Muftis,  or  doctors -of  law,  and  Kadis,  or  ministers 
of  justice.  The  priests  in  Turkey  are  subordinate  to  the 
civil  magistrate,  who  is  their  diocesan,  and  can  remove 
them  at  pleasure.  The  priests  in  daily  life  are  like  the 
laity,  engage  in  the  same  business,  and  are  no  more  austere 
than  they. 

Mr.  Forster  says,  in  regard  to  their  devotion :  “  When  I 
contrast  the  silence  of  a  Turkish  mosque,  at  the  hour  of 
public  prayer,  with  the  noise  and  tumult  so  frequent  in 
Christian  temples,  I  stand  astonished  at  the  strange  in¬ 
version,  in  the  two  religions,  of  the  order  of  things  which 
might  naturally  be  expected.”  “  I  have  seen,”  says  an¬ 
other,  “  a  congregation  of  at  least  two  thousand  souls 
assembled  in  the  mosque  of  St.  Sophia,  with  silence  so 


474 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


profound,  that  until  I  entered  the  body  of  the  building  I 
was  unaware  that  it  contained  a  single  worshipper.” 

Bishop  Southgate,  long  a  missionary  bishop  of  the  Epis¬ 
copal  Church  of  the  United  States,  says :  “  I  have  often 
met  with  Mussulmans  who  seem  to  possess  deep  religious 
feeling,  and  with  whom  I  could  exercise  something  of  a 
religious  communion.  I  have  sometimes  had  my  own 
mind  quickened  and  benefited  by  the  reverence  with 
which  they  spoke  of  the  Deity,  and  have  sometimes 
mingled  in  harmonious  converse  with  them  on  holy  things. 
I  have  heard  them  insist  with  much  earnestness  on  the 
duty  of  prayer,  when  they  appeared  to  have  some  spiritual 
sense  of  its  nature  and  importance.  I  have  sometimes 
found  them  entertaining  elevated  views  of  moral  duty,  and 
looking  with  contempt  on  the  pleasures  of  this  world. 
These  are  indeed  rare  characters,  but  I  should  do  injustice 
to  my  own  conviction  if  I  did  not  confess  that  I  had  found 
them.  In  these  instances  I  have  been  uniformly  struck 
with  a  strong  resemblance  to  patriarchal  piety.”  He  con¬ 
tinues  :  “  When  we  sat  down  to  eat,  the  old  Turkish  Bey 
implored  a  blessing  with  great  solemnity,  and  rendered 
his  thanks  when  we  arose.  Before  he  left  us  he  spread 
his  carpet,  and  offered  his  evening  devotions  with  apparent 
meekness  and  humility ;  and  I  could  not  but ,  feel  how 
impressive  are  the  Oriental  forms  of  worship  wThen  I  saw 
his  aged  head  bowed  to  the  earth  in  religious  homage.” 

Bishop  Southgate  adds  further :  “  I  have  never  known 
a  Mussulman,  sincere  in  his  faith  and  devout  and  punctil¬ 
ious  in  his  religious  duties,  in  whom  moral  rectitude  did 
not  seem  an  active  quality  and  a  living  principle.” 

In  seasons  of  plague  “  the  Turks  appear  perfectly  fear¬ 
less.  They  do  not  avoid  customary  intercourse  and  con¬ 
tact  with  friends.  They  remain  with  and  minister  to  the 

sick,  with  unshrinking  assiduity . In  truth,  there  is 

something  imposing  in  the  unaffected  calmness  of  the 
Turks  at  such  times.  It  is  a  spirit  of  resignation  which 
becomes  truly  noble  when  exercised  upon  calamities  which 
have  already  befallen  them.  The  fidelity  with  which  they 
remain  by  the  bedside  of  a  friend  is  at  least  as  commend¬ 
able  as  the  almost  universal  readiness  among  the  Franks 
to  forsake  it.” 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


475 


Five  times  a  day  the  Mezzuin  proclaims  the  hour  of 
prayer  from  the  minaret  in  these  words  :  “  There  is  no 
God  but  God.  Mohammed  is  his  prophet.  Come  to 
prayer.”  In  the  morning  call  he  adds,  “  Prayer  is  better 
than  sleep.”  Immediately  every  Mussulman  leaves  his 
occupation,  and  prostrates  himself  on  the  floor  or  ground, 
wherever  he  may  be.  It  is  very  disreputable  to  omit 
this. 

An  interesting  account  is  given  of  the  domestic  life  of 
Moslem  women  in  Syria,  by  Miss  Eogers,  in  her  little 
book  called  “  Domestic  Life  in  Palestine,”  published  in 
1862. 

Miss  Eogers  travelled  in  Palestine  with  her  brother, 
who  was  British  consul  at  Damascus.  The  following  pas¬ 
sage  illustrates  the  character  of  the  women  (Miss  Eogers 
was  obliged  to  sleep  in  the  same  room  with  the  wives  of 
the  governor  of  Arrabeh,  near  Naplous) :  — 

“  When  I  began  to  undress  the  women  watched  me 
with  curiosity ;  and  when  I  put  on  my  night-gown  they 
were  exceedingly  astonished,  and  exclaimed,  ‘  Where  are 
you  going  ?  Why  is  your  dress  white  ?  ’  They  made  no 
change  for  sleeping,  and  there  they  were,  in  their  bright- 
colored  clothes,  ready  for  bed  in  a  minute.  But  they 
stood  round  me  till  I  said  ‘  Good  night/  and  then  all 
kissed  me,  wishing  me  good  dreams.  Then  I  knelt  down, 
and  presently,  without  speaking  to  them  again,  got  into 
bed,  and  turned  my  face  to  the  wall,  thinking  over  the 
strange  day  I  had  spent.  I  tried  to  compose  myself  to 
sleep,  though  I  heard  the  women  whispering  together. 
When  my  head  had  rested  about  five  minutes  on  the  soft 
red  silk  pillow,  I  felt  a  hand  stroking  my  forehead,  and 
heard  a  voice  saying,  very  gently,  ‘  Ya  Habibi/  i.  e.  ‘  0 
beloved.’  But  I  would  not  answer  directly,  as  I  did  not 
wish  to  be  roused  unnecessarily.  I  waited  a  little  while, 
and  my  face  was  touched  again.  I  felt  a  kiss  on  my  fore¬ 
head,  and  a  voice  said,  ‘ Miriam,  speak  to  us  ;  speak,  Miri¬ 
am,  darling.’  I  could  not  resist  any  longer ;  so  I  turned 
round  and  saw  Helweh,  Saleh  Bek’s  prettiest  wife,  lean¬ 
ing  over  me.  I  said,  ‘  What  is  it,  sweetness,  what  can  I 
do  for  you  ?  ’  She  answered,  ‘  What  did  you  do  just  now, 


476 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


when  you  knelt  down  and  covered  your  face  with  your 
hands  V  I  sat  up,  and  said  very  solemnly,  ‘  I  spoke  to 
God,  Helweh.’  *  What  did  you  say  to  him  ?  ’  said  Helweh. 
I  replied,  ‘  I  wish  to  sleep.  God  never  sleeps.  I  have 
asked  him  to  watch  over  me,  and  that  I  may  fall  asleep, 
remembering  that  he  never  sleeps,  and  wake  up  remem¬ 
bering  his  presence.  I  am  very  weak.  God  is  all-power¬ 
ful.  I  have  asked  him  to  strengthen  me  with  his  strength/ 
By  this  time  all  the  ladies  were  sitting  round  me  on  the 
bed,  and  the  slaves  came  and  stood  near.  I  told  them  I 
did  not  know  their  language  well  enough  to  explain  to 
them  all  I  thought  and  said.  But  as  I  had  learned  the 
Lord’s  Prayer,  by  heart,  in  Arabic,  I  repeated  it  to  them, 
sentence  by  sentence,  slowly.  When  I  began,  ‘  Our  Father 
who  art  in  heaven,’  Helweh  directly  said,  ‘  You  told  me 
your  father  was  in  London/  I  replied,  c  I  have  two 
fathers,  Helweh ;  one  in  London,  who  does  not  know  that 
I  am  here,  and  cannot  know  till  I  write  and  tell  him  ;  and 
a  Heavenly  Father,  who  is  here  now,  who  is  with  me  al¬ 
ways,  and  sees  and  hears  us.  He  is  your  Father  also.  He 
teaches  us  to  know  good  from  evil,  if  we  listen  to  him 
and  obey  him/ 

“For  a  moment  there  was  perfect  silence.  They  all 
looked  startled,  and  as  if  they  felt  that  they  were  in  the 
presence  of  some  unseen  power.  Then  Helweh  said, 
‘  What  more  did  you  say  ?  ’  I  continued  the  Lord’s  Prayer, 
and  when  I  came  to  the  words,  ‘  Give  us  day  by  day  our 
daily  bread/  they  said,  ‘  Cannot  you  make  bread  yourself  ?  ’ 
The  passage,  ‘  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive 
those  who  trespass  against  us/  is  particularly  forcible  in 
the  Arabic  language ;  and  one  of  the  elder  women,  who 
was  particularly  severe  and  relentless-looking,  said,  ‘  Are 
you  obliged  to  say  that  every  day  ?  ’  as  if  she  thought  that 
sometimes  it  would  be  difficult  to  do  so.  They  said,  ‘  Are 
you  a  Moslem  ?  ’  I  said,  ‘  I  am  not  called  a  Moslem.  But 
I  am  your  sister,  made  by  the  same  God,  who  is  the  one 
only  God,  the  God  of  all,  my  Father  and  your  Father.’ 
They  asked  me  if  I  knew  the  Koran,  and  were  surprised 
to  hear  that  I  had  read  it.  They  handed  a  rosary  to  me, 
saying,  ‘  Do  you  know  that  ?  ’  I  repeated  a  few  of  the 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


477 


most  striking  and  comprehensive  attributes  very  carefully 
and  slowly.  Then  they  cried  out,  ‘  Mashallah,  the  English 
girl  is  a  true  believer  ’ ;  and  the  impressionable,  sensitive¬ 
looking  Abyssinian  slave-girls  said,  with  one  accord,  ‘She 
is  indeed  an  angel/ 

“  Moslems,  men  and  women,  have  the  name  of  Allah 
constantly  on  their  lips,  but  it  seems  to  have  become  a 
mere  form.  This  may  explain  why  they  were  so  startled 
when  I  said,  ‘  I  was  speaking  to  God/  ”  She  adds  that  if 
she  had  only  said,  “  I  was  saying  my  prayers,”  or,  “  I  was 
at  my  devotions,”  it  would  not  have  impressed  them.” 

Next  morning,  on  awaking,  Miss  Eogers  found  the 
women  from  the  neighborhood  had  come  in  “  to  hear  the 
English  girl  speak  to  God,”  and  Helweh  said,  “  Now, 
Miriam,  darling,  will  you  speak  to  God  ?  ”  At  the  con¬ 
clusion  she  asked  them  if  they  could  say  Amen,  and  after 
a  moment  of  hesitation  they  cried  out,  “  Amen,  amen !  ” 
Then  one  said,  “  Speak  again,  my  daughter,  speak  about 
the  bread.”  So  she  repeated  the  Lord’s  Prayer  with  ex¬ 
planations.  When  she  left,  they  crowded  around  affec¬ 
tionately,  saying,  “  Eeturn  again,  0  Miriam,  beloved !  ” 

After  this  pleasant  little  picture,  we  may  hear  some¬ 
thing  on  the  other  side.  Two  recent  travellers,  Mr.  Pal- 
grave  and  Mr.  Vambery,  have  described  the  present  state 
of  Mohammedanism  in  Central  Arabia  and  Turkistan,  or 
Central  Asia.  Barth  has  described  it  as  existing  among 
the  negroes  in  North  Africa.  Count  Gobineau  has  told 
us  of  Islam  as  it  is  in  Persia  at  the  present  day.*  Mr. 
MacFarlane,  in  his  book  “  Kismet,  or  the  Doom  of  Tur¬ 
key,”  has  pointed  out  the  gradual  decay  of  that  power, 
and  the  utter  corruption  of  its  administration.  After 
reading  such  works  as  these,  —  and  among  them  let  us 
not  forget  Mr.  Lane’s  “  Modern  Egyptians,”  —  the  con¬ 
clusion  we  must  inevitably  come  to  is,  that  the  worst 
Christian  government,  be  it  that  of  the  Pope  or  the  Czar, 
is  very  much  better  than  the  best  Mohammedan  govern¬ 
ment.  Everywhere  we  find  arbitrary  will  taking  the 
place  of  law.  In  most  places  the  people  have  no  pro- 

*  Les  Religions  et  les  Philosophies  dans  L’Asie  Centrale.  Par  M.  le 
Comte  Gobineau.  Paris. 

I 


473 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


tection  for  life  or  property,  and  know  the  government 
only  through  its  tax-gatherers.  And  all  this  is  ne¬ 
cessarily  and  logically  derived  from  the  fundamental 
principle  of  Mohammedan  theology.  God  is  pure  will, 
not  justice,  not  reason,  not  love.  Christianity  says,  “  God 
is  love  ” ;  Mohammedanism  says,  “  God  is  will.”  Chris¬ 
tianity  says,  “  Trust  in  God  ”  ;  Mohammedanism  says, 
“  Submit  to  God.”  Hence  the  hardness,  coldness,  and 
cruelty  of  the  system ;  hence  its  utter  inability  to  estab¬ 
lish  any  good  government.  According  to  Mr.  MacFar- 
lane,  it  would  be  a  blessing  to  mankind  to  have  the  Turks 
driven  out  of  Europe  and  Asia  Minor,  and  to  have  Con¬ 
stantinople  become  the  capital  of  Eussia.  The  religion  of 
Islam  is  an  outward  form,  a  hard  shell  of  authority,  hol¬ 
low  at  heart.  It  constantly  tends  to  the  two  antagonistic 
but  related  vices  of  luxury  and  cruelty.  Under  the  pro¬ 
fession  of  Islam,  polytheism  and  idolatry  have  always 
prevailed  in  Arabia.  In  Turkistan,  where  slavery  is  an 
extremely  cruel  system,  they  make  slaves  of  Moslems,  in 
defiance  of  the  Koran.  One  chief  being  appealed  to  by 
Vambery  (who  travelled  as  a  Dervish),  replied,  “  We  buy 
and  sell  the  Koran  itself,  which  is  the  holiest  thing  of  all ; 
why  not  buy  and  sell  Mussulmans,  who  are  less  holy  ?  ” 

§  6.  The  Criticism  of  Mr.  Palgrave  on  Mohammedan  The¬ 
ology. 

Mr.  Palgrave,  who  has  given  the  latest  and  best  account 
of  the  condition  of  Central  and  Southern  Arabia,*  under 
the  great  Wahhabee  revival,  sums  up  all  Mohammedan 
theology  as  teaching  a  Divine  unity  of  pure  will.  God  is 
the  only  force  in  the  universe.  Man  is  wholly  passive 
and  impotent.  He  calls  the  system,  “  A  pantheism  of 
force.”  God  has  no  rule  but  arbitrary  will.  He  is  a  tre¬ 
mendous  unsympathizing  autocrat,  but  is  yet  jealous  of 
his  creatures,  lest  thev  should  attribute  to  themselves 
something  which  belongs  to  him.  He  delights  in  making 
all  creatures  feel  that  they  are  his  slaves.  This,  Mr.  Pal- 

*  A  Year’s  Journey  through  Central  and  Eastern  Arabia.  By  William 
Gifford  Palgrave.  Third  edition.  1866.  London. 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


479 


grave  asserts,  is  the  main  idea  of  Mohammedanism,  and 
of  the  Koran,  and  this  was  what  lay  in  the  mind  of  Mo¬ 
hammed.  “  Of  this,”  says  he,  “  we  have  many  authen¬ 
tic  samples :  the  Saheeh,  the  Commentaries  of  Beydawee, 
the  Mishkat-el-Mesabeeh,  and  fifty  similar  works,  afford 
ample  testimony  on  this  point.  But  for  the  benefit  of  my 
readers  in  general,  all  of  whom  may  not  have  drunk  equally 
deep  at  the  fountain-heads  of  Islamitic  dogma,  I  will  sub¬ 
join  a  specimen,  known  perhaps  to  many  Orientalists, 
yet  too  characteristic  to  be  here  omitted,  a  repetition  of 
which  I  have  endured  times  out  of  number  from  admiring 
and  approving  Wahhabees  in  Nejed. 

“  Accordingly,  when  God  —  so  runs  the  tradition,  —  I 
had  better  said  the  blasphemy  —  resolved  to  create  the 
human  race,  he  took  into  his  hands  a  mass  of  earth,  the 
same  whence  all  mankind  were  to  be  formed,  and  in  which 
they  after  a  manner  pre-existed  ;  and,  having  then  divided 
the  clod  into  two  equal  portions,  he  threw  the  one  half 
into  hell,  saying,  ‘  These  to  eternal  fire,  and  I  care  not  ’ ; 
and  projected  the  other  half  into  heaven,  adding,  ‘  And 
these  to  paradise,  and  I  care  not.’ 

“  Commentary  would  here  be  superfluous.  But  in  this 
we  have  before  us  the  adequate  idea  of  predestination,  or, 
to  give  it  a  truer  name,  pre-damnation,  held  and  taught  in 
the  school  of  the  Koran.  Paradise  and  hell  are  at  once 
totally  independent  of  love  and  hatred  on  the  part  of  the 
Deity,  and  of  merits  and  demerits,  of  good  or  evil  con¬ 
duct,  on  the  part  of  the  creature  ;  and,  in  the  correspond¬ 
ing  theory,  rightly  so,  since  the  very  actions  which  we 
call  good  or  ill  deserving,  right  or  wrong,  wicked  or  vir¬ 
tuous,  are  in  their  essence  all  one  and  of  one,  and  accord¬ 
ingly  merit  neither  praise  nor  blame,  punishment  nor 
recompense,  except  and  simply  after  the  arbitrary  value 
which  the  all-regulating  will  of  the  great  despot  may 
choose  to  assign  or  impute  to  them.  In  a  word,  he  burns 
one  individual  through  all  eternity,  amid  red-hot  chains 
and  seas  of  molten  fire,  and  seats  another  in  the  plenary 
enjoyment  of  an  everlasting  brothel,  between  forty  celes¬ 
tial  concubines,  just  and  equally  for  his  own  good  pleas¬ 
ure,  and  because  he  wills  it. 


480 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


“  Men  are  thus  all  on  one  common  level,  here  and  here¬ 
after,  in  their  physical,  social,  and  moral  light,  —  the  level 
of  slaves  to  one  sole  master,  of  tools  to  one  universal 
agent.  But  the  equalizing  process  does  not  stop  here : 
beasts,  birds,  fishes,  insects,  all  participate  of  the  same 
honor  or  debasement ;  all  are,  like  man,  the  slaves  of  God, 
the  tools  and  automata  of  his  will ;  and  hence  Mahomet 
is  simply  logical  and  self-consistent  when  in  the  Koran 
he  informs  his  followers  that  birds,  beasts,  and  the  rest 
are  f  nations  ’  like  themselves,  nor  does  any  intrinsic  dis¬ 
tinction  exist  between  them  and  the  human  species,  ex¬ 
cept  what  accidental  diversity  the  ‘  King/  the  ‘  Proud 
One/  the  ‘  Mighty,’  the  ‘  Giant/  etc.,  as  he  styles  his  God, 
may  have  been  pleased  to  make,  just  as  he  willed  it,  and 
so  long  as  he  may  will  it.” 

“  The  Wahhabee  reformer,”  continues  Mr.  Palgrave, 
“formed  the  design  of  putting  back  the  hour-hand  of 
Islam  to  its  starting-point ;  and  so  far  he  did  well,  for 
that  hand  was  from  the  first  meant  to  be  fixed.  Islam  is 
in  its  essence  stationary,  and  was  framed  thus  to  remain. 
Sterile  like  its  God,  lifeless  like  its  First  Principle  and 
Supreme  Original,  in  all  that  constitutes  true  life,  —  for 
life  is  love,  participation,  and  progress,  and  of  these  the 
Koranic  Deity  has  none,  —  it  justly  repudiates  all  change, 
all  advance,  all  development.  To  borrow  the  forcible 
words  of  Lord  Houghton,  the  ‘  written  book  ’  is  the  ‘  dead 
man’s  hand/  stiff  and  motionless ;  whatever  savors  of  vi¬ 
tality  is  by  that  alone  convicted  of  heresy  and  defection. 

“  But  Christianity,  with  its  living  and  loving  God,  be¬ 
getter  and  begotten,  spirit  and  movement ;  nay  more,  —  a 
Creator  made  creature,  the  Maker  and  the  made  existing 
in  one  ;  a  Divinity  communicating  itself  by  uninterrupted 
gradation  and  degree,  from  the  most  intimate  union  far  off 
to  the  faintest  irradiation,  through  all  that  it  has  made  for 
love  and  governs  in  love  ;  one  who  calls  his  creatures  not 
slaves,  not  servants,  but  friends,  —  nay  sons,  —  nay  gods  : 
to  sum  up,  a  religion  in  whose  seal  and  secret  ‘  God  in  man 
is  one  with  man  in  God,’  must  also  be  necessarily  a  religion 
of  vitality,  of  progress,  of  advancement.  The  contrast  be¬ 
tween  it  and  Islam  is  that  of  movement  with  fixedness, 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


481 


of  participation  with  sterility,  of  development  with  bar¬ 
renness,  of  life  with  petrifaction.  The  first  vital  principle 
and  the  animating  spirit  of  its  birth  must,  indeed,  abide 
ever  the  same,  but  the  outer  form  must  change  with  the 
changing  days,  and  new  offshoots  of  fresh  sap  and  green¬ 
ness  be  continually  thrown  out  as  witnesses  to  the  vital¬ 
ity  within  ;  else  were  the  vine  withered  and  the  branches 
dead.  I  have  no  intention  here  —  it  would  be  extremely 
out  of  place  —  of  entering  on  the  maze  of  controversy,  or 
discussing  whether  any  dogmatic  attempt  to  reproduce 
the  religious  phase  of  a  former  age  is  likely  to  succeed. 
I  only  say  that  life  supposes  movement  and  growth, 
and  both  imply  change ;  that  to  censure  a  living  thing 
for  growing  and  changing  is  absurd ;  and  that  to  at¬ 
tempt  to  hinder  it  from  so  doing  by  pinning  it  down  on  a 
written  label,  or  nailing  it  to  a  Procrustean  framework,  is 
tantamount  to  killing  it  altogether.  Now  Christianity  is 
living,  and,  because  living,  must  grow,  must  advance,  must 
change,  and  was  meant  to  do  so :  onwards  and  forwards  is 
a  condition  of  its  very  existence ;  and  I  cannot  but  think 
that  those  who  do  not  recognize  this  show  themselves  so 
far  ignorant  of  its  true  nature  and  essence.  On  the  other 
hand,  Islam  is  lifeless,  and,  because  lifeless,  cannot  grow, 
cannot  advance,  cannot  change,  and  was  never  intended  so 
to  do  ;  stand-still  is  its  motto  and  its  most  essential  con¬ 
dition  ;  and  therefore  the  son  of  Abd-el-Wahhab,  in  doing 
his  best  to  bring  it  back  to  its  primal  simplicity,  and 
making  its  goal  of  its  starting-point,  was  so  far  in  the 
right,  and  showed  himself  well  acquainted  with  the  nature 
and  first  principles  of  his  religion.” 


§  7.  Mohammedanism  a  Relapse  ;  the  worst  Form  of  Mono¬ 
theism,  and  a  retarding  Element  in  Civilization . 

According  to  this  view,  which  is  no  doubt  correct,  the 
monotheism  of  Mohammed  is  that  which  makes  of  God 
pure  will;  that  is,  which  exaggerates  personality  (since 
personality  is  in  will),  making  the  Divine  One  an  Infinite 
Tree  Will,  or  an  Infinite  I.  But  will  divorced  from 

reason  and  love  is  wilfulness,  or  a  purely  arbitrary  will.  , 

21  EE 


482 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Now  the  monotheism  of  the  Jews  differed  from  this,  in 
that  it  combined  with  the  idea  of  will  the  idea  of  justice. 
God  not  only  does  what  he  chooses,  but  he  chooses  to  do 
only  what  is  right.  Righteousness  is  an  attribute  of  God, 
with  which  the  Jewish  books  are  saturated. 

Still,  both  of  these  systems  leave  God  outside  of  the 
world ;  above  all  as  its  Creator  and  Euler,  above  all  as  its 
Judge ;  but  not  through  all  and  in  all.  The  idea  of  an 
Infinite  Love  must  be  added  and  made  supreme,  in  order 
to  give  us  a  Being  who  is  not  only  above  all,  but  also 
through  all  and  in  all.  This  is  the  Christian  monotheism. 

Mohammed  teaches  not  only  the  unity  but  also  the 
spirituality  of  God,  but  his  idea  of  the  divine  Unity  is 
of  a  numeric  unity,  not  a  moral  unity ;  and  so  his  idea  of 
divine  spirituality  is  that  of  an  abstract  spirituality, — 
God  abstracted  from  matter,  and  so  not  to  be  represented 
by  pictures  and  images  ;  God  withdrawn.  outLof the  world, 
and  above  all,  —  in  a  total  separation. 

Judaism  also  opposed  idolatry ~ and  idol-worship,  and 
taught  that  God  was  above  all,  and  the  maker  of  the 
world ;  but  it  conceived  of  God  as  with  man,  by  his  re¬ 
peated  miraculous  coming  down  in  prophets,  judges, 
kings  ;  also  with  his  people,  the  Jews,  mysteriously  pres¬ 
ent  in  their  tabernacle  and  temple.  Their  spirituality 
was  not  quite  as  abstract  then  as  that  of  the  Moham¬ 
medans. 

But  Christianity,  as  soon  as  it  became  the  religion  of 
a  non-Semitic  race,  as  soon  as  it  had  converted  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  not  only  imparted  to  them  its  mono¬ 
theism,  but  received  from  them  their  strong  tendencies  to 
pantheism.  They  added  to  the  God  “  above  all,”  and  the 
God  “  with  all,”  the  God  “  in  us  all.”  True,  this  is  also 
to  be  found  in  original  Christianity  as  proceeding  from 
the  life  of  Jesus.  The  New  Testament  is  full  of  this 
kind  of  pantheism,  —  God  in  man,  as  well  as  God  with 
man.  Jesus  made  the  step  forward  from  God  with  man 
to  God  in  man,  —  “I  in  them,  thou  in  me.”  The  doctrine 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  this  idea,  of  God  who  is  not  only 
wiE  and  power,  not  only  wisdom  and  law,  but  also  love ; 
of  a  God  who  desires  communion  and  intercourse  with 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


483 


his  children,  so  coming  and  dwelling  in  them.  Moham¬ 
med  teaches  a  God  above  us ;  Moses  teaches  a  God 
above  us,  and  yet  with  us  ;  Jesus  teaches  God  above  us, 
God  with  us,  and  God  in  us. 

According  to  this  view,  Mohammedanism  is  a  re¬ 
lapse.  It  is  going  back  to  a  lower  level.  It  is  returning 
from  the  complex  idea  to  the  simple  idea.  But  the  com¬ 
plex  is  higher  than  the  simple.  The  seed-germ,  and  the 
germ-cell,  out  of  which  organic  life  comes,  is  lower  than 
the  organizations  which  are  developed  out  of  it.  The 
Mollusks  are  more  complex  and  so  are  higher  than  the 
Radiata,  the  Yertebrata  are  more  complex  than  the  Mol¬ 
lusks.  Man  is  the  most  complex  of  all,  in  soul  as  well 
as  body.  The  complex  idea  of  God,  including  will, 
thought,  and  love,  in  the  perfect  unity,  is  higher  than  the 
simplistic  unity  of  will  which  Mohammed  teaches.  But 
the  higher  ought  to  come  out  of  and  conquer  the  lower. 
How,  then,  did  Mohammedanism  come  out  of  Christianity 
and  Judaism  ? 

The  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  law  of  reaction 
and  relapse.  Reaction  is  going  back  to  a  lower  ground, 
to  pick  up  something  which  has  been  dropped,  forgotten, 
left  behind,  in  the  progress  of  man.  The  condition  of 
progress  is  that  nothing  shall  be  -lost.  The  lower  truth 
must  be  preserved  in  the  higher  truth ;  the  lower  life 
taken  up  into  the  higher  life.  Now  Christianity,  in  going 
forward,  had  accepted  from  the  Indo-Germanic  races  that 
sense  of  God  in  nature,  as  well  as  God  above  nature, 
which  has  always  been  native  with  those  races.  It  took 
up  natural  religion  into  monotheism.  But  in  taking  it 
up,  it  went  so  far  as  to  lose  something  of  the  true  unity 
of  God.  Its  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  at  least  in  its  Orient¬ 
al  forms,  lost  the  pure  personal  monotheism  of  Judaism. 
No  doubt  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  embodies  a  great 
truth,  but  it  has  been  carried  too  far.  So  Mohammedan¬ 
ism  came,  as  a  protest  against  this  tendency  to  plurality 
in  the  godhead,  as  a  demand  for  a  purely  personal  God- 
It  is  the  Unitarianism  of  the  East.  It  was  a  new  asser¬ 
tion  of  the  simple  unity  of  God,  against  polytheism  and 
against  idolatry. 


484 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


The  merits  and  demerits,  the  good  and  evil,  of  Moham 
medanism  are  to  be  found  in  this,  its  central  idea  con¬ 
cerning  God.  It  has  taught  submission,  obedience,  pa¬ 
tience  ;  but  it  has  fostered  a  wilful  individualism.  It  has 
made  social  life  lower.  Its  governments  are  not  govern¬ 
ments.  Its  virtues  are  stoical.  It  makes  life  barren  and 
empty.  It  encourages  a  savage  pride  and  cruelty.  It 
makes  men  tyrants  or  slaves,  women  puppets,  religion  the 
submission  to  an  infinite  despotism.  Time  is  that  it 
came  to  an  end.  Its  work  is  done.  It  is  a  hard,  cold, 
cruel,  empty  faith,  which  should  give  way  to  the  purer 
forms  of  a  higher  civilization. 

No  doubt,  Mohammedanism  was  needed  when  it  came, 
and  has  done  good  service  in  its  time.  But  its  time  is 
almost  passed.  In  Europe  it  is  an  anachronism  and  an 
anomaly,  depending  for  its  daily  existence  on  the  sujyport 
received  from  Christian  powers,  jealous  of  Russian  ad¬ 
vance  on  Constantinople.  It  will  be  a  blessing  to  man¬ 
kind  to  have  the  capital  of  Russia  on  the  Bosphorus.  A 
recent  writer  on  Turkey  thus  speaks :  — 

“  The  military  strength  of  Mohammedanism  was  in  its  steady 
and  remorseless  bigotry.  Socially,  it  won  by  the  lofty  ideality 
of  its  precepts,  without  pain  or  satiety.  It  accorded  well,  too, 
with  the  isolate  and  primitive  character  of  the  municipalities 
scattered  over  Asia.  Resignation  to  God  —  a  motto  well 
according  with  Eastern  indolence  —  was  borne  upon  its  ban¬ 
ners,  while  in  the  profusion  of  delight  hereafter  was  promised 
an  element  of  endurance  and  courage.  It  had,  too,  one  strik¬ 
ingly  Arabic  characteristic,  —  simplicity. 

“  One  God  the  Arabian  prophet  preached  to  man  ; 

One  God  the  Orient  still 

Adores,  through  many  a  realm  of  mighty  span,  — 

A  God  of  power  and  will. 

A  God  that,  shrouded  in  his  lonely  light, 

Rests  utterly  apart 

From  all  the  vast  creations  of  his  might. 

From  nature,  man,  and  art. 

“A  Power  that  at  his  pleasure  doth  create 
To  save  or  to  destroy  ; 

And  to  eternal  pain  predestinate. 

As  to  eternal  joy. 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


485 


“  It  is  the  merit  and  the  glory  of  Mohammed  that,  beside 
founding  twenty  spiritual  empires  and  providing  laws  for  the 
guidance  through  centuries  of  millions  of  men,  he  shook  the 
foundations  of  the  faith  of  heathendom.  Mohammed  was  the  im¬ 
personation  of  two  principles  that  reign  in  the  government  of 
God,  —  destruction  and  salvation.  He  would  receive  nations 
to  his  favor  if  they  accepted  the  faith,  and  utterly  destroy 
them  if  they  rejected  it.  Yet,  in  the  end,  the  sapless  tree 
must  fall.” 

M.  H.  Blerzey,*  in  speaking  of  Mohammedanism  in 
Northern  Africa,  says  :  — 

“  At  bottom  there  is  little  difference  between  the  human 
sacrifices  demanded  by  fetichism  and  the  contempt  of  life 
produced  by  the  Mussulman  religion.  Between  the  social 
doctrines  of  these  Mohammedan  tribes  and  the  sentiments  of 
Christian  communities  there  is  an  immense  abyss.” 

And  again :  — 

“  The  military  and  fanatic  despotism  of  the  Arabs  has 
vested  during  many  centuries  in  the  white  autochthonic  races 
of  North  Africa,  without  any  fusion  taking  place  between  the 
conquering  element  and  the  conquered,  without  destroying 
at  all  the  language  and  manners  of  the  subject  people,  and, 
in  a  word,  without  creating  anything  durable.  The  Arab  con¬ 
quest  was  a  triumph  of  brute  force,  and  nothing  further.” 

And  M.  Benan,  a  person  well  qualified  to  judge  of  the 
character  of  this  religion  by  the  most  extensive  and  im¬ 
partial  studies,  gives  this  verdict  :f  — 

“  Islamism,  following  as  it  did  on  ground  that  was  none 
of  the  best,  has,  on  the  whole,  done  as  much  harm  as  good  to 
the  human  race.  It  has  stifled  everything  by  its  dry  and 
desolating  simplicity.” 

Again :  — 

“  At  the  present  time,  the  essential  condition  of  a  diffused 
civilization  is  the  destruction  of  the  peculiarly  Semitic  element, 
the  destruction  of  the  theocratic  power  of  Islamism,  conse¬ 
quently  the  destruction  of  Islamism  itself.”  J 

*  Article  in  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  January  15,  1868. 

+  Studies  in  Religious  History  and  Criticism.  The  Future  of  Religion 
in  Modern  Society. 

$  Ibid.,  “  The  Part  of  the  Semitic  People  in  the  History  of  Civili¬ 
zation.” 


486 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Again :  — 

“  Islamism  is  evidently  the  product  of  an  inferior,  and,  so 
to  speak,  of  a  meagre  combination  of  human  elements.  For 
this  reason  its  conquests  have  all  been  on  the  average  plane 
of  human  nature.  The  savage  races  have  been  incapable  of 
rising  to  it,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  it  has  not  satisfied  people 
who  carried  in  themselves  the  seed  of  a  stronger  civiliza¬ 
tion.”  * 


NOTE  TO  THE  CHAPTER  ON  MOHAMMED. 

We  give  in  this  note  further  extracts  from  Mr.  Palgrave’s  descrip¬ 
tion  of  the  doctrine  of  Islam. 

“  This  keystone,  this  master  thought,  this  parent  idea,  of  which  all 
the  rest  is  but  the  necessary  and  inevitable  deduction,  is  contained 
in  the  phrase  far  oftener  repeated  than  understood,  ‘La  Hah  ilia 
Allah,’  ‘  There  is  no  God  but  God.’  A  literal  translation,  but  much 
too  narrow  for  the  Arab  formula,  and  quite  inadequate  to  render  its 
true  force  in  an  Arab  mouth  or  mind. 

“  *  There  is  no  God  but  God  ’  are  words  simply  tantamount  in 
English  to  the  negation  of  any  deity  save  one  alone ;  and  thus 
much  they  certainly  mean  in  Arabic,  but  they  imply  much  more 
also.  Their  full  sense  is,  not  only  to  deny  absolutely  and  unreserv¬ 
edly  all  plurality,  whether  of  nature  or  of  person,  in  the  Supreme 
Being,  not  only  to  establish  the  unity  of  the  Unbegetting  and  Un¬ 
begot,  in  all  its  simple  and  uncommunicable  Oneness,  but  besides 
this  the  words,  in  Arabic  and  among  Arabs,  imply  that  this  one  Su¬ 
preme  Being  is  also  the  only  Agent,  the  only  Force,  the  only  Act  ex¬ 
isting  throughout  the  universe,  and  leave  to  all  beings  else,  matter  or 
spirit,  instinct  or  intelligence,  physical  or  moral,  nothing  but  pure, 
unconditional  passiveness,  alike  in  movement  or  in  quiescence,  in 
action  or  in  capacity.  The  sole  power,  the  sole  motor,  movement, 
energy,  and  deed  is  God ;  the  rest  is  downright  inertia  and  mere 
instrumentality,  from  the  highest  archangel  down  to  the  simplest 
atom  of  creation.  Hence,  in  this  one  sentence,  ‘  La  Ilah  ilia  Allah,’ 
is  summed  up  a  system  which,  for  want  of  a  better  name,  I  may  be 
permitted  to  call  the  Pantheism  of  Force,  or  of  Act,  thus  exclusively 
assigned  to  God,  who  absorbs  it  all,  exercises  it  all,  and  to  whom 
alone  it  can  be  ascribed,  whether  for  preserving  or  for  destroying, 
for  relative  evil  or  for  equally  relative  good.  I  say  ‘  relative,’  be¬ 
cause  it  is  clear  that  in  such  a  theology  no  place  is  left  for  absolute 
good  or  evil,  reason  or  extravagance ;  all  is  abridged  in  the  auto- 

*  Ibid.  The  Future  of  Religion  in  Modern  Society,  The  Origins  of 
Islamism. 


MOHAMMED  AND  ISLAM. 


487 


cratic  will  of  the  one  great  Agent :  ‘  sic  volo,  sic  jubeo,  stet,  pro 
ratione  voluntas  ’ ;  or,  more  significantly  still,  in  Arabic,  ‘  Kema 
yesha’o,’  ‘as  he  wills  it,’  to  quote  the  constantly  recurring  expres¬ 
sion  of  the  Koran. 

“  Thus  immeasurably  and  eternally  exalted  above,  and  dissimilar 
from,  all  creatures,  which  lie  levelled  before  him  on  one  common 
plane  of  instrumentality  and  inertness,  God  is  one  in  the  totality 
of  omnipotent  and  omnipresent  action,  which  acknowledges  no  rule, 
standard,  or  limit  save  his  own  sole  and  absolute  will.  He  commu¬ 
nicates  nothing  to  his  creatures,  for  their  seeming  power  and  act 
ever  remain  his  alone,  and  in  return  he  receives  nothing  from  them ; 
for  whatever  they  may  be,  that  they  are  in  him,  by  him,  and  from 
him  only.  And  secondly,  no  superiority,  no  distinction,  no  pre-emi¬ 
nence,  can  be  lawfully  claimed  by  one  creature  over  its  fellow,  in  the 
utter  equalization  of  their  unexceptional  servitude  and  abasement ; 
all  are  alike  tools  of  the  one  solitary  Force  which  employs  them  to 
crush  or  to  benefit,  to  truth  or  to  error,  to  honor  or  shame,  to  hap¬ 
piness,  or  misery,  quite  independently  of  their  individual  fitness, 
deserts,  or  advantage,  and  simply  because  he  wills  it,  and  as  he 
wills  it. 

“  One  might  at  first  think  that  this  tremendous  autocrat,  this  un¬ 
controlled  and  unsympathizing  power,  would  be  far  above  anything 
like  passions,  desires,  or  inclinations.  Yet  such  is  not  the  case,  for 
he  has  with  respect  to  his  creatures  one  main  feeling  and  source  of 
action,  namety,  jealousy  of  them  lest  they  should  perchance  attrib¬ 
ute  to  themselves  something  of  what  is  his  alone,  and  thus  encroach 
on  his  all-engrossing  kingdom.  Hence  he  is  ever  more  prone  to 
punish  than  to  reward,  to  inflict  than  to  bestow  pleasure,  to  ruin 
than  to  build.  It  is  his  singular  satisfaction  to  let  created  beings 
continually  feel  that  they  are  nothing  else  than  his  slaves,  his  tools, 
and  contemptible  tools  also,  that  thus  they  may  the  better  acknowl¬ 
edge  his  superiority,  and  know  his  power  to  be  above  their  power, 
his  cunning  above  their  cunning,  his  will  above  their  will,  his  pride 
above  their  pride ;  or  rather,  that  there  is  no  power,  cunning,  will, 
or  pride  save  his  own. 

“But  he  himself,  sterile  in  his  inaccessible  height,  neither  loving 
nor  enjoying  aught  save  his  own  and  self-measured  decree,  without 
son,  companion,  or  counsellor,  is  no  less  barren  for  himself  than  for 
his  creatures,  and  his  own  barrenness  and  lone  egoism  in  himself  is 
the  cause  and  rule  of  his  indifferent  and  unregarding  despotism 
around.  The  first  note  is  the  key  of  the  whole  tune,  and  the  primal 
idea  of  God  runs  through  and  modifies  the  whole  system  and  creed 
that  centres  in  him. 

“  That  the  notion  here  given  of  the  Deity,  monstrous  and  blasphe¬ 
mous  as  it  may  appear,  is  exactly  and  literally  that  which  the  Koran 
conveys,  or  intends  to  convey,  I  at  present  take  for  granted.  But 
that  it  indeed  is  so,  no  one  who  has  attentively  perused  and  thought 
over  the  Arabic  text  (for  mere  cursory  reading,  especially  in  a  trans¬ 
lation,  will  not  suffice)  can  hesitate  to  allow.  In  fact,  every  phrase 


488 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


of  the  preceding  sentences,  every  touch  in  this  odious  portrait,  has 
been  taken,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  word  for  word,  or  at  least 
meaning  for  meaning,  from  the  ‘  Book,’  the  truest  mirror  of  the 
mind  and  scope  of  its  writer. 

“  And  that  such  was  in  reality  Mahomet’s  mind  and  idea  is  fully 
confirmed  by  the  witness-tongue  of  contemporary  tradition.” 


THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY. 


489 


CHAPTER  XII 


THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY. 


§  1.  General  Results  of  this  Survey.  §  2.  Christianity  a  Pleroma,  or 
Fulness  of  Life.  §  3.  Christianity,  as  a  Pleroma,  compared  with  Brah¬ 
manism,  Confucianism,  and  Buddhism.  §  4.  Christianity  compared 
with  the  Avesta  and  the  Eddas.  The  Duad  in  all  Religions.  §  5.  Chris¬ 
tianity  and  the  Religions  of  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Rome.  §  6.  Chris¬ 
tianity  in  Relation  to  Judaism  and  Mohammedanism.  The  Monad  in  all 
Religions.  §  7.  The  Fulness  of  Christianity  is  derived  from  the  Life  of 
Jesus.  §  8.  Christianity  as  a  Religion  of  Progress  and  of  Universal 
Unity. 

§  1.  General  Results  of  this  Survey. 

E  have  now  examined,  as  fully  as  our  limits  would 


V  V  allow,  ten  of  the  chief  religions  which  have  enlisted 
the  faith  of  mankind.  We  are  prepared  to  ask,  in  conclu¬ 
sion,  what  they  teach  us  in  regard  to  the  prospects  of 
Christianity,  and  the  religious  future  of  our  race. 

First,  this  survey  must  have  impressed  on  every  mind 
the  fact  that  man  is  eminently  a  religious  being.  We 
have  found  religion  to  he  his  supreme  and  engrossing 
interest  on  every  continent,  in  every  millennium  of  his¬ 
toric  time,  and  in  every  stage  of  human  civilization.  In 
some  periods  men  are  found  as  hunters,  as  shepherds, 
as  nomads,  in  others  they  are  living  associated  in  cities, 
hut  in  all  these  conditions  they  have  their  religion.  The 
tendency  to  worship  some  superhuman  power  is  uni¬ 
versal. 

The  opinion  of  the  positivist  school,  that  man  passes 
from  a  theological  stage  to  one  of  metaphysics,  and  from 
that  to  one  of  science,  from  which  later  and  higher  epoch 
both  theology  and  philosophy  are  excluded,  is  not  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  the  facts  we  have  been  observing.  Science 
and  art,  in  Egypt,  went  hand  in  hand  with  theology, 
during  thousands  of  years.  Science  in  Greece  preceded 
the  latest  forms  of  metaphysics,  and  both  Greek  science 


21* 


I 


490  TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 

and  Greek  philosophy  were  the  preparation  for  Christian 
faith.  In  India  the  Sankhya  philosophy  was  the  prep¬ 
aration  for  the  Buddhist  religion.  Theology  and  religion 
to-day,  instead  of  disappearing  in  science,  are  as  vigorous 
as  ever.  Science,  philosophy,  and  theology  are  all  ad¬ 
vancing  together,  a  noble  sisterhood  of  thought.  And, 
looking  at  facts,  we  may  ask,  In  what  age  or  time  was 
religion  more  of  a  living  force,  acting  on  human  affairs, 
than  it  is  at  present  ?  To  believe  in  things  not  seen,  to 
worship  a  power  above  visible  nature,  to  look  forward  to 
an  unknown  future,  this  is  natural  to  man. 

In  the  United  States  there  is  no  established  religion, 
yet  in  no  country  in  the  world  is  more  interest  taken  in 
religion  than  with  us.  In  the  Protestant  denominations 
it  has  dispensed  with  the  gorgeous  and  imposing  ritual, 
which  is  so  attractive  to  the  common  mind,  and  depends 
mainly  on  the  interest  of  the  word  of  truth.  Yet  the 
Protestant  denominations  make  converts,  build  churches, 
and  support  their  clergy  with  an  ardor  seemingly  undi¬ 
minished  by  the  progress  of  sotence.  There  are  no  symp¬ 
toms  that  man  is  losing  his  interest  in  religion  in  con¬ 
sequence  of  his  increasing  knowledge  of  nature  and  its 
laws. 

Secondly,  we  have  seen  that  these  religions  vary  ex¬ 
ceedingly  from  each  other  in  their  substance  and  in  their 
forms.  They  have  a  great  deal  in  common,  but  a  great 
deal  that  is  different.  Mr.  Wentworth  Higginson,*  in  an 
excellent  lecture,  much  of  which  has  our  cordial  assent, 
says,  “  Every  race  believes  in  a  Creator  and  Governor  of 
the  world,  in  whom  devout  souls  recognize  a  Father  also.” 
But  Buddhism,  the  most  extensive  religion  on  the  surface 
of  the  earth,  explicitly  denies  creation,  and  absolutely  ig¬ 
nores  any  liuler  or  Governor  of  the  world.  The  Buddha 
neither  made  the  world  nor  preserves  it,  and  the  Buddha 
is  the  great  object  of  Buddhist  worship.  Mr.  Higginson 
says  :  “  Every  race  believes  in  immortality.”  Though  the 
Buddhists,  as  we  have  seen,  believe  in  immortality,  it  is  in 
so  obscure  a  form  that  many  of  the  best  scholars  declare 

*  The  Sympathy  of  Religions,  an  Address  by  Thomas  Wentworth  Hig¬ 
ginson.  Boston,  iS71. 


THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  491 

that  the  highest  aim  and  the  last  result  of  all  progress  in 
Buddhism  is  annihilation.  He  continues,  “Every  race 
recognizes  in  its  religious  precepts  the  brotherhood  of 
man.”  The  Koran  teaches  no  such  doctrine,  and  it  is 
notorious  that  the  Brahmanical  system  of  caste,  which 
has  been  despotic  in  India  for  twenty-five  hundred  years, 
excludes  such  brotherhood.  Mr.  Higginson  therefore  is 
of  opinion  that  caste  has  grown  up  in  defiance  of  the 
Yedas.  The  Vedas  indeed  are  ignorant  of  caste,  but  they 
are  also  ignorant  of  human  brotherhood.  The  system  of 
caste  was  not  a  defiance  of  the  Vedas. 

Nothing  is  gained  for  humanity  by  such  statements, 
which  are  refuted  immediately  by  the  most  evident 
facts.  The  true  “  sympathy  of  religions  ”  does  not  consist 
in  their  saying  the  same  thing,  any  more  than  a  true 
concord  in  music  consists  in  many  performers  striking 
the  same  note.  Variety  is  the  condition  of  harmony. 
These  religions  may,  and  we  believe  will,  be  all  harmo¬ 
nized  ;  but  -thus  far  it  is  only  too  plain  that  they  have 
been  at  war  with  each  other.  In  order  to  find  the  re¬ 
semblances  we  must  begin  by  seeing  the  differences. 

Cudworth,  in  his  great  work,  speaks  of  “  the  symphony 
of  all  religions,”  an  expression  which  we  prefer  to  that 
of  Mr.  Higginson.  It  expresses  precisely  what  we  con¬ 
ceive  to  be  the  fact,  that  these  religions  are  all  capable 
of  being  brought  into  union,  though  so  very  different. 
They  may  say, 

‘•'Are  not  we  formed,  as  notes  of  music  are, 

For  one  another,  though  dissimilar  ? 

Such  difference,  without  discord,  as  shall  make 
The  sweetest  sounds.” 

But  this  harmony  can  only  be  established  among  the 
ethnic  religions  by  means  of  a  catholic  religion  which 
shall  be  able  to  take  each  of  them  up  into  itself,  and  so 
finally  merge  them  in  a  higher  union.  The  Greek,  Bo- 
man,  and  Jewish  religions  could  not  unite  with  each 
other  ;  but  they  were  united  by  being  taken  up  into  Chris¬ 
tianity.  Christianity  has  assimilated  the  essential  ideas 
of  the  religions  of  Persia,  Judaea,  Egypt,  Greece,  Borne, 
and  Scandinavia ;  and  each  of  these  religions,  in  turn,  dis- 


492 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


appeared  as  it  was  absorbed  by  this  powerful  solvent.  In 
the  case  of  Greece,  Home,  Germany,  and  Judaea,  this  fact 
of  their  passing  into  solution  in  Christianity  is  a  matter 
of  history.  Not  all  the  Jews  became  Christians,  nor  has 
Judaism  ceased  to  exist.  This  is  perhaps  owing  to  the 
doctrines  of  the  Trinity  and  the  Deity  of  Christ,  which 
offend  the  simplistic  monotheism  of  the  Jewish  mind. 
Yet  Christianity  at  first  grew  out  of  Judaism,  and  took 
up  into  itself  the  best  part  of  the  Jews  in  and  out  of 
Palestine. 

The  question  therefore  is  this,  Will  Christianity  be 
able  to  do  for  the  remaining  religions  of  the  world  what 
it  did  for  the  Greeks,  the  Komans,  and  the  Teutonic  na¬ 
tions  ?  Is  it  capable  of  becoming  a  universal  religion  ? 


§  2.  Christianity  a  Pleroma,  or  Fulness  of  Life. 

It  is  evident  that  Christianity  can  become  the  universal 
human  religion  only  by  supplying  the  religious  wants  of 
all  the  races  of  men  who  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the 
earth.  If  it  can  continue  to  give  them  all  the  truth  their 
own  religions  contain,  and  add  something  more  ;  if  it 
can  inspire  them  with  all  the  moral  life  which  their  own 
religions  communicate,  and  yet  more ;  and,  finally,  if  it 
can  unite  the  races  of  men  in  one  family,  one  kingdom 
of  heaven,  —  then  it  is  fitted  to  be  and  will  become  the 
universal  religion.  It  will  then  not  share  the  fate  of 
those  which  have  preceded  it.  It  will  not  have  its  rise, 
progress,  decline,  and  fall.  It  will  not  become,  in  its  turn, 
antiquated,  and  be  left  behind  by  the  advance  of  human¬ 
ity.  It  will  not  be  swallowed  up  in  something  deeper 
and  broader  than  itself.  But  it  will  appear  as  the  desire 
of  all  nations,  and  Christ  ‘will  reign  until  he  has  subdued 
all  his  enemies  —  error,  war,  sin,  selfishness,  tyranny, 
cruelty  —  under  his  feet. 

Now,  as  we  have  seen,  Christianity  differs  from  all  other 
religions  (on  the  side  of  truth)  in  this,  that  it  is  a  plero¬ 
ma,  or  fulness  of  knowledge.  It  does  not  differ,  by  teach¬ 
ing  what  has  never  been  said  or  thought  before.  Perhaps 
the  substance  of  most  of  the  statements  of  Jesus  may 


THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY. 


493 


be  found  scattered  through  the  ten  religions  of  the  world, 
some  here  and.  some  there.  Jesus  claims  no  monopoly 
of  the  truth.  He  says,  “  My  doctrine  is  not  mine,  but 
his  who  sent  me.”  But  he  does  call  himself  “  the 
Light  of  the  World,”  and  says  that  though  he  does  not 
come  to  destroy  either  the  law  or  the  prophets,  he  comes 
to  fulfil  them  in  something  higher.  His  work  is  to  fulfil 
all  religions  with  something  higher,  broader,  and  deeper 
than  what  they  have,  —  accepting  their  truth,  supplying 
their  deficiencies. 

If  this  is  a  fact,  then  it  will  appear  that  Christianity 
comes,  not  as  an  exclusive,  but  as  an  inclusive  system. 
It  includes  everything,  it  excludes  nothing  but  limitation 
and  deficiency. 

Whether  Christianity  be  really  such  a  pleroma  of 
truth  or  not,  must  be  ascertained  by  a  careful  comparison 
of  its  teachings,  and  the  ideas  lying  back  of  them,  with 
those  of  all  other  religions.  We  have  attempted  this,  to 
some  extent,  in  our  Introduction,  and  in  our  discussion 
of  each  separate  religion.  We  have  seen  that  Christian¬ 
ity,  in  converting  the  nations,  always  accepted  something 
and  gave  something  in  return.  Thus  it  received  from 
Egypt  and  Africa  their  powerful  realism,  as  in  the  writ¬ 
ings  of  Tertullian,  Origen,  Augustine,  and  gave  in  return 
a  spiritual  doctrine.  It  received  God,  as  seen  in  nature 
and  its  organizations,  and  returned  God  as  above  na¬ 
ture.  Christianity  took  from  Greece  intellectual  activ¬ 
ity,  and  returned  moral  life.  It  received  from  Borne 
organization,  and  returned  faith  in  a  fatherly  Provi¬ 
dence.  It  took  law,  and  gave  love.  From  the  German 
races  it  accepted  the  love  of  individual  freedom,  and  re¬ 
turned  union  and  brotherly  love.  From  Judaism  it  ac¬ 
cepted  monotheism  as  the  worship  of  a  Supreme  Being,  a 
Bighteous  Judge,  a  Holy  King,  and  added  to  this  faith 
in  God  as  in  all  nature  and  all  life. 

But  we  will  proceed  to  examine  some  of  these  points  a 
little  more  minutely. 


494 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


§  3.  Christianity ,  as  a  Pleroma ,  compared  with  Brahman - 
ism,  Confucianism ,  and  Buddhism. 

Christianity  and  Brahmanism.  The  essential  value  of 
Brahmanism  is  its  faith  in  spirit  as  distinct  from  matter, 
eternity  as  distinct  from  time,  the  infinite  as  opposed  to 
the  finite,  substance  as  opposed  to  form. 

The  essential  defect  of  Brahmanism  is  its  spiritual  pan¬ 
theism,  which  denies  all  reality  to  this  world,  to  finite 
souls,  to  time,  space,  matter.  In  its  vast  unities  all  va¬ 
rieties  are  swallowed  up,  all  differences  come  to  an  end. 
It  does  not,  therefore,  explain  the  world,  it  denies  it.  It 
is  incapable  of  morality,  for  morality  assumes  the  eternal 
distinction  between  right  and  wrong,  good  and  evil,  and 
Brahmanism  knows  no  such  difference.  It  is  incapable 
of  true  worship,  since  its  real  God  is  spirit  in  itself,  ab¬ 
stracted  from  all  attributes.  Instead  of  immortality,  it 
can  only  teach  absorption,  or  the  disappearance  of  the 
soul  in  spirit,  as  rain-drops  disappear  in  the  ocean. 

Christianity  teaches  a  Supreme  Being  who  is  pure 
spirit,  “  above  all,  through  all,  and  in  all,”  “  from  whom, 
and  through  whom,  and  to  whom  are  all  things,”  “in 
whom  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being.”  It  is  a 
more  spiritual  religion  than  Brahmanism,  for  the  fatter 
has  passed  on  into  polytheism  and  idolatry,  which  Chris¬ 
tianity  has  always  escaped.  Yet  while  teaching  faith  in 
a  Supreme  Being,  the  foundation  and  substance  below 
all  existence,  it  recognizes  him  as  A  living  God.  He  is 
not  absorbed  in  himself,  nor  apart  from  his  world,  but  a 
perpetual  Providence,  a  personal  Friend  and  Father.  He 
dwells  in  eternity,  but  is  manifested  in  time. 

Christianity,  therefore,  meets  the  truth  in  Brahmanism 
by  its  doctrine  of  God  as  Spirit,  and  supplies  its  deficien¬ 
cies  by  its  doctrine  of  God  as  a  Father. 

Christianity  and  the  system  of  Confucius.  The  good 
side  in  the  teaching  of  Confucius  is  his  admirable  mo¬ 
rality,  his  wisdom  of  life  in  its  temporal  limitations, 
his  reverence  for  the  past,  his  strenuous  conservatism  of 
all  useful  institutions,  and  the  uninterrupted  order  of 
the  social  system  resting  on  these  ideas. 


THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  495 

The  evil  in  his  teaching  is  the  absence  of  the  super¬ 
natural  element,  which  deprives  the  morality  of  China  of 
enthusiasm,  its  social  system  of  vitality,  its  order  of 
any  progress,  and  its  conservatism  of  any  improvement. 
It  is  a  system  without  hope,  and  so  has  remained  frozen 
in  an  icy  and  stiff'  immobility  for  fifteen  hundred  years. 

But  Christianity  has  shown  itself  capable  of  uniting 
conservatism  with  progress,  in  the  civilization  of  Christen¬ 
dom.  It  respects  order,  reveres  the  past,  holds  the  family 
sacred,  and  yet  is  able  also  to  make  continual  progress  in 
science,  in  art,  in  literature,  in  the  comfort  of  the  whole 
community.  It  therefore  accepts  the  good  and  the  truth 
in  the  doctrines  of  Confucius,  and  adds  to  these  another 
element  of  new  life. 

Christianity  and  Buddhism.  The  truth  in  Buddhism 
is  in  its  doctrine  of  the  relation  of  the  soul  to  the  laws 
of  nature  ;  its  doctrine  of  consequences  ;  its  assurance 
of  a  strict  retribution  for  every  human  action ;  its  prom¬ 
ise  of  an  ultimate  salvation  in  consequence  of  good 
works  ;  and  of  a  redemption  from  all  the  woes  of  time  by 
obedience  to  the  truth. 

The  evil  in  the  system  is  that  belonging  to  all  legal¬ 
ism.  It  does  not  inspire  faith  in  any  living  and  present 
God,  or  any  definite  immortality.  The  principle,  there¬ 
fore,  of  development  is  wanting,  and  it  leaves  the  Mongol 
races  standing  on  a  low  plane  of  civilization,  restraining 
them  from  evil,  but  not  inspiring  them  by  the  sight  of  good. 

Christianity,  like  Buddhism,  teaches  that  whatever  a 
man  sows  that  shall  he  also  reap  ;  that  those  who  by  pa¬ 
tient  continuance  in  well-doing  seek  for  glory,  honor,  and 
immortality  shall  receive  eternal  life ;  that  the  books 
shall  be  opened  in  the  last  day,  and  every  man  be  re¬ 
warded  according  to  his  works ;  that  lie  whose  pound 
gains  five  pounds  shall  be  ruler  over  five  cities.  In  short, 
Christianity,  in  its  Scriptures  and  its  practical  influence, 
has  always  taught  salvation  by  works. 

Yet,  beside  this,  Christianity  teaches  justification  by 
faith,  as  the  root  and  fountain  of  all  real  obedience.  It 
inspires  faith  in  a  Heavenly  Father  who  has  loved  his 


496 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


every  child  from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world ; 
who  welcomes  the  sinner  back  when  he  repents  and  re¬ 
turns  ;  whose  forgiving  love  creates  a  new  life  in  the 
heart.  This  faith  evermore  tends  to  awaken  the  dormant 
energies  in  the  soul  of  man ;  and  so,  under  its  influence, 
one  race  after  another  has  commenced  a  career  of  progress. 
Christianity,  therefore,  can  fulfil  Buddhism  also. 

§  4.  Christianity  compared  with  the  Aresta  and  the  Eddas. 

The  Duad  in  all  Religions. 

The  essential  truth  in  the  Avesta  and  the  Eddas  is  the 
same.  They  both  recognize  the  evil  in  the  world  as  real, 
and  teach  the  duty  of  fighting  against  it.  They  avoid  the 
pantheistic  indifference  of  Brahmanism,  and  the  absence 
of  enthusiasm  in  the  systems  of  Confucius  and  the 
Buddha,  by  the  doctrine  of  a  present  conflict  between 
the  powers  of  good  and  evil,  of  light  and  of  darkness. 
This  gives  dignity  and  moral  earnestness  to  both  systems. 
By  fully  admitting  the  freedom  of  man,  they  make  the 
sense  of  responsibility  possible,  and  so  purify  and  feed 
morality  at  its  roots. 

The  difficulty  with  both  is,  that  they  carry  this  dualistic 
view  of  nature  too  far,  leaving  it  an  unreconciled  dualism. 
The  supreme  Monad  is  lost  sight  of  in  this  ever-present 
Duad..  Let  us  see  how  this  view  of  evil,  or  the  dual  ele¬ 
ment  in  life,  appears  in  other  systems. 

As  the  Monad  in  religion  is  an  expression  of  one  infi¬ 
nite  supreme  presence,  pervading  all  nature  and  life,  so 
the  Duad  shows  the  antagonism  and  conflict  between 
truth  and  falsehood,  right  and  wrong,  good  and  evil,  the 
infinite  perfection  and  the  finite  imperfection.  This  is 
a  conflict  actually  existing  in  the  world,  and  one  which 
religion  must  accept  and  account  for.  Brahmanism  does 
not  accept  it,  but  ignores  it.  This  whole  conflict  is  Maya, 
a  deception  and  illusion.  Yet,  in  this  form  of  illusion,  it 
makes  itself  so  far  felt,  that  it  must  be  met  by  sacrifices, 
prayers,  penances,  and  the  law  of  transmigration ;  until 
all  the  apparent  antagonism  shall  be  swallowed  up  in  the 
Infinite  One,  the  only  substance  in  the  universe. 


THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY. 


497 


Buddhism  recognizes  the  conflict  more  fully.  It 
frankly  accepts  the  Duad  as  the  true  explanation  of  the 
actual  universe.  The  ideal  universe  as  Nirvana  mav  be 

u 

one ;  but  of  this  we  know  nothing.  The  actual  world  is 
a  twofold  world,  composed  of  souls  and  the  natural  laws. 
The  battle  of  life  is  with  these  laws.  Every  soul,  by 
learning  to  obey  them,  is  able  to  conquer  and  use  them, 
as  steps  in  an  ascent  toward  Nirvana. 

But  the  belief  of  Zoroaster  and  that  of  Scandinavia  re¬ 
gard  the  Duad  as  still  more  deeply  rooted  in  the  essence 
of  existing  things.  All  life  is  battle,  —  battle  with  moral 
or  physical  evil.  Courage  is  therefore  the  chief  virtue  in 
both  systems.  The  Devil  first  appears  in  theology  in 
these  two  forms  of  faith.  The  Persian  devil  is  Ahriman  ; 
the  Scandinavian  devil  is  Loki.  Judaism,  with  its  abso¬ 
lute  and  supreme  God,  could  never  admit  such  a  rival  to 
his  power  as  the  Persian  Ahriman  ;  yet  as  a  being  per¬ 
mitted,  for  wise  purposes,  to  tempt  and  try  men,  he  comes 
into  their  system  as  Satan.  Satan,  on  his  first  appearance 
in  the  Book  of  Job,  is  one  of  the  angels  of  God.  He  is 
the  heavenly  critic  ;  his  business  is  to  test  human  virtue 
by  trial,  and  see  how  deep  it  goes.  His  object  in  testing 
Job  was  to  find  whether  he  loved  virtue  for  its  rewards, 
or  for  its  own  sake.  “  Does  Job  serve  God  for  naught?  ” 
According  to  this  view,  the  man  who  is  good  merely  for 
the  sake  of  reward  is  not  good  at  all. 

In  the  Egyptian  system,  as  in  the  later  faith  of  India, 
the  evil  principle  appears  as  a  power  of  destruction.  Siva 
and  Typlion  are  the  destroying  agencies  from  whom  pro¬ 
ceed  all  the  mischief  done  in  the  world.  Nevertheless, 
they  are  gods,  not  devils,  and  have  their  worship  and 
worshippers  among  those  whose  religious  nature  is  more 
imbued  with  fear  than  with  hope.  The  timid  worshipped 
the  deadly  and  destructive  powers,  and  their  prayers 
were  deprecations.  The  bolder  worshipped  the  good  gods. 
Similarly,  in  Greece,  the  Chtonic  deities  had  their  shrines 
and  worshippers,  as  had  the  powers  of  Blight,  Famine, 
and  Pestilence  at  Borne. 

Yet  only  in  the  A  vesta  is  this  great  principle  of  evil! 
set  forth  in  full  antagonism  against  the  powers  of  light 


498 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


and  love.  And  probably  from  Persia,  after  the  captivity, 
this  view  of  Satan  entered  into  Jewish  theology.  In  the 
Old  Testament,  indeed,  where  Satan  or  the  Devil  as  a 
proper  name  only  occurs  four  times,*  in  all  which  cases 
he  is  a  subordinate  angel,  the  true  Devil  does  not  appear. 
In  the  Apocrypha  he  is  said  (Wisdom  ii.  24)  to  have 
brought  death  into  the  world.  The  New  Testament  does 
not  teach  a  doctrine  of  Satan,  or  the  Devil,  as  something 
new  and  revealed  then  for  the  first  time,  but  assumes  a 
general  though  vague  belief  in  such  a  being.  This  belief 
evidently  existed  among  the  Jews  when  Christ  came.  It 
as  evidently  was  not  taught  in  the  Old  Testament.  The 
inevitable  inference  is  that  it  grew  up  in  the  Jewish 
mind  from  its  communication  with  the  Persian  dualism. 

But  though  the  doctrine  of  a  Devil  is  no  essential  part 
of  Christianity,*)-  the  reality  and  power  of  evil  is  fully 
recognized  in  the  New  Testament  and  in  the  teachings 
of  the  Church.  Indeed,  in  the  doctrine  of  everlasting 
punishment  and  of  an  eternal  hell,  it  has  been  carried 
to  a  dangerous  extreme.  The  Divine  sovereignty  is  seri¬ 
ously  infringed  and  invaded  by  such  a  view.  If  any 
outlying  part  of  the  universe  continues  in  a  state  of  per¬ 
manent  rebellion,  God  is  not  the  absolute  sovereign. 
But  wickedness  is  rebellion.  If  any  are  to  continue 
eternally  in  hell,  it  is  because  they  continue  in  perpetual 
wickedness  ;  that  is,  the  rebellion  against  God  will  never  be 
effectually  suppressed.  Only  when  every  knee  bows,  and 
every  tongue  confesses  that  Christ  is  Lord  to  the  glory  of 
God  the  Father ;  only  when  truth  and  love  have  subdued 
all  enemies  by  converting  them  into  friends,  is  redemption 
complete  and  the  universe  at  peace. 

Now,  Christianity  (in  spite  of  the  illogical  doctrine  of 
everlasting  punishment)  has  always  inspired  a  faith  in 
the  redeeming  power  of  love  to  conquer  all  evil.  It  has 

*  Job  i.  '6,  T2  ;  ii.  1  ;  Zech.  iii.  1  ;  1  Chron.  xxi.  1. 

+  In  the  passages  where  Satan  or  the  Devil  is  mentioned,  the  truth 
taught  is  the  same,  and  the  moral  result  the  same,  whether  we  interpret 
the  phrase  as  meaning  a  personal  being,  or  the  principle  of  evil.  In 
'many  of  these  passages  a  personal  being  cannot  be  meant :  for  example, 
John  vi.  70  ;  Matt.  xvi.  23  ;  Mark  viii.  33  ;  1  Cor.  v.  5  ;  2  Cor.  xii.  7  ; 
1  Thess.  ii.  18  ;  1  Tim.  i .  20  ;  Heb.  ii.  14. 


THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  499 

taught  that  evil  can  be  overcome  by  good.  It  asserts 
truth  to  be  more  powerful  than  error,  right  than  wrong. 
It  teaches  us  in  our  daily  prayer  to  expect  that  God’s 
kingdom  shall  come,  and  his  will  shall  be  done  on  earth  as 
it  is  in  Heaven.  It  therefore  fulfils  the  truth  in  the  great 
dualisms  of  the  past  by  its  untiring  hope  of  a  full  re¬ 
demption  from  all  sin  and  all  evil. 

§  5.  Christianity  ctnd  the  Religions  of  Egypt,  Greece,  and 

Rome. 

The  Religion  of  Egypt.  This  system  unfolded  the 
truth  of  the  Divine  in  this  world,  of  the  sacredness  of 
bodily  organization,  and  the  descent  of  Deity  into  the 
ultimate  parts  of  his  creation.  Its  defect  was  its  inability 
to  combine  with  this  an  open  spiritualism.  It  had  not 
the  courage  of  its  opinions,  so  far  as  they  related  to  the 
divine  unity,  spirituality,  and  eternity. 

Christianity  also  accepts  the  doctrine  of  God,  present 
in  nature,  in  man,  in  the  laws  of  matter,  in  the  infinite 
variety  of  things.  But  it  adds  to  this  the  elevated  spirit¬ 
ualism  of  a  monotheistic  religion,  and  so  accepts  the  one 
and  the  all,  unity  and  variety,  substance  and  form,  eter¬ 
nity  and  time,  spirit  and  body,  as  filled  with  God  and 
manifesting  him. 

The  Religions  of  Greece  and  Rome.  The  beauty  of 
nature,  the  charm  of  art,  the  genius  of  man,  were  idealized 
and  deified  in  the  Greek  pantheon.  The  divinity  of  law, 
organizing  human  society  according  to  universal  rules  of 
justice,  was  the  truth  in  the  Roman  religion.  The  defect 
of  the  Greek  theology  was  the  absence  of  a  central  unity. 
Its  polytheism  carried  variety  to  the  extreme  of  disorder 
and  dissipation.  The  centrifugal  force,  not  being  prop¬ 
erly  balanced  by  any  centripetal  power,  inevitably  ends  in 
dissolution.  The  defect  of  Roman  worship  was,  that  its 
oppressive  rules  ended  in  killing  out  life.  Law,  in  the 
form  of  a  stiff  external  organization,  produced  moral  death 
at  last  in  Rome,  as  it  had  produced  moral  death  in  J udsea. 

Now  Christianity,  though  a  monotheism,  and  a  mono- 


500 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


theism  which  has  destroyed  forever  both  polytheism  and 
idolatry  wherever  it  has  gone,  is  not  that  of  numerical 
unity.  The  God  of  Christianity  differs  in  this  from  the 
God  of  Judaism  and  Mohammedanism.  He  is  an  infinite 
will ;  but  he  is  more.  Christianity  cognizes  God  as  not 
only  above  nature  and  the  soul,  but  also  as  in  nature  and 
in  the  soul.  Thus  nature  and  the  soul  are  made  divine. 
The  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  expresses  this  en¬ 
largement  of  the  Jewish  monotheism  from  a  numerical  to. 
a  moral  unity.  The  God  of  Christ  is  human  in  this  re¬ 
spect,  that  he  is  conceived  of  in  the  image  of  man.  Man  is 
essentially  a  unit  through  his  will,  in  which  lies  the  secret 
of  personal  identity.  But  besides  will  he  has  intellect, 
by  which  he  comes  into  communion  with  the  universe ; 
and  affection,  by  which  he  comes  into  communion  with 
his  race.  Christianity  conceives  of  God  in  the  same  way. 
He  is  an  omnipresent  will  as  the  Father,  Creator,  and 
Euler  of  all  things.  He  is  the  Word,  or  manifested  Truth 
in  the  Son,  manifested  through  all  nature,  manifested 
through  all  human  life.  He  is  the  Spirit,  or  inspiration  of 
each  individual  soul.  So  he  is  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit, 
above  all,  through  all,  and  in  us  all.  By  this  larger  view 
of  Deity  Christianity  was  able  to  meet  the  wants  of  the 
Aryan  races,  in  whom  the  polytheistic  tendency  is  so 
strong.  That  tendency  was  satisfied  by  this  view  of  God 
immanent  in  nature  and  immanent  in  human  life. 

Judaism  and  Mohammedanism,  with  their  more  concrete 
monotheism,  have  not  been  able  to  convert  the  Aryan 
races.  Mohammedanism  has  never  affected  the  mind  of 
India,  nor  disturbed  the  ascendency  of  Brahmanism  there. 
And  though  it  nominally  possesses  Persia,  yet  it  holds  it  as 
a  subject,  not  as  a  convert.  Persian  Sufism  is  a  proof  pf 
the  utter  discontent  of  the  Aryan  intellect  with  any 
monotheism  of  pure  will.  Sufism  is  the  mystic  form  of 
Mohammedanism,  recognizing  communion  with  God,  and 
not  merely  submission,  as  being  the  essence  of  true  relig¬ 
ion.  During  the  long  Mohammedan  dominion  in  Turkey 
it  has  not  penetrated  the  minds  or  won  the  love  of  the 
Greek  races.  It  is  evident  that  Christianity  succeeded  in 
converting  the  Greeks  and  Bomans  by  means  of  its  larger 


THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  501 

view  of  the  Deity,  of  which  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  as 
it  stands  in  the  creeds,  is  a  crude  illogical  expression. 

§  6.  Christianity  in  Relation  to  Judaism  and  Mohamme¬ 
danism.  The  Monad  in  all  Religions. 

There  are  three  religions  which  teach  the  pure  unity 
of  God,  or  true  monotheism.  These  three  Unitarian  re¬ 
ligions  are  Judaism,  Christianity,  and  Mohammedanism. 
They  also  all  originated  in  a  single  race,  the  Semitic  race, 
that  which  has  occupied  the  central  region  of  the 
world,  the  centre  of  three  continents.  It  is  the  race 
which  tends  to  a  religious  unity,  as  that  of  our  Aryan  an¬ 
cestors  tended  to  variety. 

But  what  is  pure  monotheism  ?  It  is  the  worship  of 
one  alone  God,  separated  by  the  vast  abyss  of  the  infinite 
from  all  finite  beings.  It  is  the  worship  of  God,  not  as 
the  Supreme  Being  only,  not  as  the  chief  among  many 
gods,  as  Jupiter  was  the  president  of  the  dynasty  on 
Olympus,  not  merely  the  Most  High,  but  as  the  only  God. 
It  avoids  the  two  extremes,  one  of  making  the  Supreme 
Being  head  of  a  council  or  synod  of  deities,  and  the  other 
of  making  him  indeed  infinite,  but  an  infinite  abstraction, 
or  abyss  of  darkness.  These  are  the  two  impure  forms  of 
monotheism.  The  first  prevailed  in  Greece,  Borne,  Egypt, 
Scandinavia.  In  each  of  these  religions  there  was  a  su¬ 
preme  being,  —  Zeus,  Jupiter,  Ammon,  Odin,  —  but  this 
supreme  god  was  only  primus  inter  pares ,  first  among 
equals.  The  other  impure  form  of  monotheism  prevailed 
in  the  East,  —  in  Brahmanism,  Buddhism,  and  the  religion 
of  Zoroaster.  In  the  one  Parabrahm,  in  the  other  Zerana- 
Akerana,  in  the  third  Nirvana  itself,  is  the  Infinite  Being 
or  substance,  wholly  separate  from  all  that  is  finite.  It 
is  so  wholly  separate  as  to  cease  to  be  an  object  of  adora¬ 
tion  and  obedience.  Not  Parabrahm,  but  Siva,  Vischnu, 
and  Brahma ;  not  Zerana-Akerana,  but  Ormazd  and  the 
Amschaspands ;  not  the  infinite  world  of  Nirvana,  nor  the 
mighty  Adi-Buddha,  but  the  Buddhas  of  Confession,  the 
finite  Sakya-Muni,  are  the  objects  of  worship  in  these 
systems. 


502 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Only  from  the  Semitic  race  have  arisen  the  pure  mono¬ 
theistic  religions  of  Judaism,  Christianity,  and  Mohamme¬ 
danism.  Each  of  these  proclaims  one  only  God,  and  each 
makes  this  only  God  the  object  of  all  worship  and  ser¬ 
vice.  Judaism  says,  “Hear!  0  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God 
is  one  Lord!”  (Deut.  vi.  4.)  Originally  among  the  Jews, 
God’s  name  as  the  “  Plural  of  Majesty  ”  indicated  a  unity 
formed  from  variety  ;  but  afterward  it  became  in  the  word 
Jahveh  a  unity  of  substance.  “By  my  name  Jehovah  I 
was  not  known  to  them  ”  (i.  e.  to  the  Patriarchs).*  That 
?e  indicates  absolute  Being,  “  I  am  the  I  am.”  f 

ancient  Gentile  monotheism  vibrated  between  a  per¬ 
sonal  God,  the  object  of  worship,  who  was  limited  and 
finite,  and  an  infinite  absolute  Being  who  was  out  of  sight, 
“  whose  veil  no  one  had  lifted.”  The  peculiarity  of  the 
Mosaic  religion  was  to  make  God  truly  the  one  alone,  and 
at  the  same  time  truly  the  object  of  worship. 

In  this  respect  Judaism,  Christianity,  and  Mohamme¬ 
danism  agree,  and  in  this  they  differ  from  all  other  relig¬ 
ions.  Individual  thinkers,  like  Socrates,  iEschylus,  Cicero, 
have  reached  the  same  conviction ;  but  these  three  are 
the  only  popular  religions,  in  which  God  is  at  once  the 
infinite  and  absolute,  and  the  only  object  of  worship. 

Now  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  these  three  religions, 
which  are  the  only  pure  monotheistic  religions,  are  at  the 
same  time  the  only  religions  which  have  any  claim  to 
catholicity.  Buddhism,  though  the  religion  of  numerous 
nations,  seems  to  be  the  religion  of  only  one  race,  namely, 
the  Turanic  race,  or  Mongols.  The  people  of  India  who 
remain  Buddhists,  the  Singalese,  or  inhabitants  of  Ceylon, 
belong  to  the  aboriginal  Tamul,  or  Mongol  race.  With 
this  exception  then  (which  is  no  exception,  as  far  as  we 
know  the  ethnology  of  Eastern.  Asia),  the  only  religions 
which  aim  at  Catholicism  are  these  three,  which  are  also 
the  only  monotheistic  religions.  J udaism  aimed  at  cath¬ 
olicity  and  hoped  for  it.  It  had  an  instinct  of  universal¬ 
ity,  as  appeared  in  its  numerous  attempts  at  making 
proselytes  of  other  nations.  It  failed  of  catholicity  when 
it  refused  to  accept  as  its  Christ  the  man  who  had  risen 


*  Exodus  vi.  2. 


t  Exodus  iii.  14. 


THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY. 


503 


above  its  national  limitations,  and  who  considered  Roman 
tax-gatherers  and  Samaritans  as  already  prepared  to  enter 
the  kingdom  of  the  Messiah.  The  Jews  required  all 
their  converts  to  become  Jews,  and  in  doing  this  left 
the  catholic  ground.  Christianity  in  the  mouth  of  Paul, 
who  alone  fully  seized  the  true  idea  of  his  Master,  said, 
“  Circumcision  availeth  nothing,  nor  uncircuincision,  but 
a  new  creature.”  In  other  words,  he  declared  that  it  was 
not  necessary  to  become  a  Jew  in  order  to  be  a  Christian. 

The  Jewish  mind,  so  far  forth  as  it  was  monotheistic, 
aimed  at  catholicity.  The  unity  of  God  carries  with  it, 
logically,  the  unity  of  man.  From  one  God  as  spirit  we 
infer  one  human  family.  So  Paul  taught  at  Athens. 
“  God  that  made  the  world  and  all  things  therein,  .... 
hath  •  made  of  one  blood  all  races  of  men  to  dwell  on 
all  the  face  of  the  earth.” 

But  the  Jews,  though  catholic  as  monotheists,  and  as 
worshipping  a  spiritual  God,  weve  limited  by  their  ritual 
and  their  intense  national  bigotry.  Hereditary  and  an¬ 
cestral  pride  separated  them,  and  still  separate  them, 
from  the  rest  of  mankind.  “  We  have  Abraham  to  our 
Father ,”  is  the  talisman  which  has  kept  them  together, 
but  kept  them  from  union  with  others. 

Christianity  and  Mohammedanism,  therefore,  remain  the 
only  two  really  catholic  religions.  Each  has  overpassed 
all  the  boundaries  of  race.  Christianity,  beginning  among 
the  Jews,  a  Semitic  people,  passed  into  Europe,  and  has 
become  the  religion  of  Greeks,  Romans,  Kelts,  Germans, 
and  the  Slavic  races  of  Russia,  and  has  not  found  it  im¬ 
possible  to  convert  the  Africans,  the  Mongols,  and  the 
American  Indians.  So  too  the  Mohammedan  religion, 
also  beginning  among  the  Semitic  race,  has  become  the 
nominal  religion  of  Persia,  Turkey,  Northern  Africa,  and 
Central  Asia.  Monotheism,  therefore,  includes  a  ten¬ 
dency  to  catholicity.  But  Islam  has  everywhere  made 
subjects  rather  than  converts,  and  so  has  failed  of  entire 
success.  It  has  not  assimilated  its  conquests. 

The  monotheism  of  Christianity,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  while  accepting  the  absolute  supremacy  of  the 
Infinite  Being,  so  as  to  displace  forever  all  secondary  or 


504 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


subordinate  gods,  yet  conceives  of  him  as  the  present 
inspiration  of  all  his  children.  It  sees  him  coming  down 
to  bless  them  in  the  sunshine  and  the  shower,  as  inspir¬ 
ing  every  good  thought,  as  a  providence  guiding  all  human 
lives.  And  by  this  view  it  fulfils  both  Judaism  and  Mo¬ 
hammedanism,  and  takes  a  long  step  beyond  them  both. 

§  7.  The  Fulness  of  Christianity  is  derived  from  the  Life 

of  Jesus. 

Christianity  has  thus  shown  itself  to  be  a  universal 
solvent,  capable  of  receiving  into  itself  the  existing  truths 
of  the  ethnic  religions,  and  fulfilling  them  with  something 
higher.  Whenever  it  has  come  in  contact  with  natural 
religion,  it  has  assimilated  it  and  elevated  it.  This  is  one 
evidence  that  it  is  intended  to  become  the  universal  re¬ 
ligion  of  mankind. 

This  pleroma,  or  fulness,  integrity,  all-sidedness,  or  by 
{whatever  name  we  call  it,  is  something  deeper  than 
thought.  A  system  of  thought  might  be  devised  large 
enough  to  include  all  the  truths  in  all  the  religions  of  the 
world,  putting  each  in  its  own  place  in  relation  to  the 
rest.  Such  a  system  might  show  how  they  all  are  related 
to  each  other,  and  all  are  in  harmony.  But  this  would  be 
a  philosophy,  not  a  religion.  No  such  philosophy  appears 
in  the  original  records  of  Christianity.  The  New  Testa¬ 
ment  does  not  present  Jesus  as  a  philosopher,  nor  Paul 
as  a  metaphysician.  There  is  no  systematic  teaching  in 
the  Gospels,  nor  in  the  Epistles.  Yet  we  find  there,  in  in¬ 
cidental  utterances,  the  elements  of  this  many-sided  truth, 
in  regard  to  God,  man,  duty,  and  immortality.  But  we 
find  it  as  life,  not  as  thought.  It  is  a  fulness  of  life  in 
the  soul  of  Jesus,  passing  into  the  souls'  of  his  disciples 
and  apostles,  and  from  them  in  a  continuous  stream  of 
Christian  experience,  down  to  the  present  time. 

The  word  pleroma  (n^fipcopa),  in  the  New  Testament, 
means  that  which  fills  up ;  fulness,  fulfilling,  filling  full. 
The  verb  “  to  fulfil  ”  (n\r]p6u>)  carries  the  same  significance. 
To  “  fulfil  that  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophets,”  means 
to  fill  it  full  of  meaning  and  truth.  Jesus  came,  not  to 


THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY. 


505 


destroy  the  law,  but  to  fulfil  it ;  that  is,  to  carry  it  out 
further.  He  fulfilled  Moses  and  the  prophets,  not  by  do¬ 
ing  exactly  what  they  foretold,  in  their  sense,  but  by  doing 
it  in  a  higher,  deeper,  and  larger  sense.  He  fulfilled  their 
thought  as  the  flower  fulfils  the  bud,  and  as  the  fruit  ful¬ 
fils  the  flower.  The  sense  of  the  fulness  of  life  in  Jesus 
and  in  the  Gospel  seems  to  have  struck  the  minds  of  the 
early  disciples,  and  powerfully  impressed  them.  Hence 
the  fiequency  with  which  they  use  this  verb  and  noun, 
signifying  fulness.  Jesus  fulfilled  the  law,  the  prophets, 
all  righteousness,  the  Scriptures.  He  came  in  the  fulness 
of  time.  His  joy  was  fulfilled.  Paul  prays  that  the 
disciples  may  be  filled  full  of  joy,  peace,  and  hope,  with 
the  fruits  of  righteousness,  with  all  knowledge,  with  the 
spirit  of  God,  and  with  all  the  fulness  of  God.  He  teach¬ 
es  that  love  fulfils  the  law,  that  the  Church  is  the  fulness 
of  Christ,  that  Christ  fills  all  things  full  of  himself,  and 
that  in  him  dwells  all  the  fulness  of  the  godhead  bodily. 

One  great  distinction  between  Christianity  and  all  other 
religions  is  in  this  pleroma,  or  fulness  of  life  which  it 
possesses,  and  which,  to  all  appearance,  came  from  the 
life  of  Jesus.  Christianity  is  often  said  to  be  differenced 
from  ethnic  religions  in  other  ways.  They  are  natural 
religions :  it  is  revealed.  They  are  natural :  it  is  super¬ 
natural.  They  are  human :  it  is  divine.  But  all  truth 
is  revealed  truth ;  it  all  comes  from  God,  and,  therefore, 
so  far  as  ethnic  religions  contain  truth,  they  also  are  rev¬ 
elations.  Moreover,  the  supernatural  element  is  to  be 
found  in  all  religions ;  for  inspiration,  in  some  form,  is 
universal.  All  great  births  of  time  are  supernatural, 
making  no  part  of  the  nexus  of  cause  and  effect.  How 
'  can  you  explain  the  work  of  Confucius,  of  Zoroaster,  of 
the  Buddha,  of  Mohammed,  out  of  the  existing  state  of 
society,  and  the  educational  influences  of  their  time  ?  All 
such  great  souls  are  much  more  the  makers  of  theh 
age  than  its  result ;  they  are  imponderable  elements  in 
civilization,  not  to  be  accounted  for  by  anything  outside 
of  themselves.  Nor  can  we  urge  the  distinction  of  hu¬ 
man  and  divine ;  for  there  is  a  divine  element  in  all  eth¬ 
nic  religions,  and  a  broadly  human  element  in  Christianity. 

22 


506 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


Jesus  is  as  much  the  representative  of  human  nature  as 
he  is  the  manifestation  of  God.  He  is  the  Son  of  man, 
no  less  than  the  Son  of  God. 

One  great  fact  which  makes  a  broad  distinction  be¬ 
tween  other  religions  and  Christianity  is  that  they  are 
ethnic  and  it  is  catholic.  They  are  the  religions  of  races 
and  nations,  limited  by  these  lines  of  demarcation,  by 
the  bounds  which  God  has  beforehand  appointed.  Chris¬ 
tianity  is  a  catholic  religion :  it  is  the  religion  of  the 
human  race.  It  overflows  all  boundaries,  recognizes  no 
limits,  belongs  to  man  as  man.  And  this  it  does,  because 
of  the  fulness  of  its  life,  which  it  derives  from  its  head 
and  fountain,  Jesus  Christ,  in  whom  dwells  the  fulness 
both  of  godhead  and  of  manhood. 

It  is  true  that  the  great  missionary  work  of  Christian¬ 
ity  has  long  been  checked.  It  does  not  now  convert 
whole  nations.  Heathenism,  Mohammedanism,  Judaism, 
Brahmanism,  Buddhism,  stand  beside  it  unmoved.  What 
is  the  cause  of  this  check  ? 

The  catholicity  of  the  Gospel  was  born  out  of  its  fluent 
and  full  life.  It  was  able  to  convert  the  Greeks  and 
Bomans,  and  afterward  Goths,  Vandals,  Lombards,  Franks, 
Scandinavians,  because  it  came  to  them,  not  as  a  creed, 
but  as  a  life.  But  neither  Boman  Catholics  nor  Protestants 
have  had  these  large  successes  since  the  Middle  Ages. 
Instead  of  a  life,  Christianity  became  a  church  and  a 
creed.  When  this  took  place,  it  gradually  lost  its  grand 
missionary  power.  It  no  longer  preached  truth,  but 
doctrine;  no  longer  communicated  life,  but  organized  a 
body  of  proselytes  into  a  rigid  church.  Party  spirit  took 
the  place  of  the  original  missionary  spirit.  #  Even  the 
majority  of  the  German  tribes  was  converted  by  Arian 
missionaries,  and  orthodoxy  has  not  the  credit  of  that 
last  grand  success  of  Christianity.  The  conversion  of 
seventy  millions  of  Chinese  in  our  own  day  to  the  relig¬ 
ion  of  the  Bible  was  not  the  work  of  Catholic  or  Prot¬ 
estant  missionaries,  but  of  the  Hew  Testament.  The 
Church  and  the  creed  are  probably  the  cause  of  this  fail¬ 
ure.  Christianity  has  been  partially  arrested  in  its  nat¬ 
ural  development,  first  by  the  Papal  Church,  and  secondly 
by  the  too  rigid  creeds  of  orthodoxy. 


THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY. 


507 


If  the  swarming  myriads  of  India  and  Mongolia  ate  to 
be  converted  to  Christianity,  it  must  be  done  by  return¬ 
ing  to  the  original  methods.  We  must  begin  by  recog¬ 
nizing  and  accepting  the  truth  they  already  possess.  We 
must  be  willing  to  learn  of  them,  in  order  to  teach  them. 
Comparative  Theology  will  become  the  science  of  mis¬ 
sions  if  it  help  to  show  to  Christians  the  truth  and  good 
in  the  creeds  outside  of  Christendom.  For  to  the  Church 
and  to  its  sects,  quite  as  much  as  to  the  world,  applies  the 
saying,  “  He  that  exalteth  himself  shall  be  abased,  but  he 
that  humbleth  himself  shall  be  exalted.” 

§  8.  Christianity  as  a  Religion  of  Progress  and  of  Uni¬ 
versal  Unity. 

As  long  as  a  tree  or  an  animal  lives  it  continues  to 
grow.  An  arrest  of  growth  is  the  first  symptom  of  the 
decline  of  life.  Fulness  of  life,  therefore,  as  the  essential 
character  of  Christianity,  should  produce  a  constant  de¬ 
velopment  and  progress ;  and  this  we  find  to  be  the 
case.  Other  religions  have  their  rise,  progress,  decline, 
and  fall,  or  else  are  arrested  and  become  stationary.  The 
religions  of  Persia,  Egypt,  Greece,  Rome,  Scandinavia,  have 
come  to  an  end.  As  ethnic  religions,  they  shared  the 
fortunes  of  the  race  or  nation  with  which  they  were  asso¬ 
ciated.  The  systems  of  Confucius,  of  the  Buddha,  of 
Brahmanism,  of  Judaea,  of  Mohammed,  are  arrested.  They 
remain  stationary.  But,  thus  far,  Christianity  and  Chris¬ 
tendom  advance  together.  Christianity  has  developed, 
out  of  its  primitive  faith,  several  great  theologies,  the 
mediaeval  Papacy,  Protestantism,  and  is  now  evidently 
advancing  into  new  and  larger  forms  of  religious,  moral, 
and  social  activity. 

The  fact  of  a  fulness  of  divine  and  human  life  in  Jesus 
took  form  in  the  doctrines  of  the  incarnation  and  the  Trin¬ 
ity.  The  fact  of  the  reconciling  and  uniting  power  of 
this  life  took  form  in  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement. 
Both  of  these  doctrines  are  illogical  and  false,  in  their 
form,  as  church  doctrines.  But  both  of  them  represent 
most  essential  facts.  We  have  seen  the  truths  in  the 


508 


TEN  GREAT  RELIGIONS. 


doctrines  of  incarnation  and  the  Trinity.  The  truth  in 
the  atonement  is,  as  the  word  itself  signifies,  the  at-one- 
making  power  of  the  Gospel  The  reconciliation  of  an¬ 
tagonist  truths  and  opposing  tendencies,  which  philosophy 
has  always  unsuccessfully  endeavored  to  state  in  theory, 
Christianity  accomplishes  in  practice. .  Christianity  con¬ 
tinually  reproduces  from  its  depths  of  life  a  practical  faith 
in  God,  both  as  law  and  as  love,  in  man,  both  as  a  free 
and  yet  as  a  providentially  guided  being.  It  gives  us 
God  as  unity  and  as  variety,  as  the  substance  and  as  the 
form  of  the  world.  It  states  the  reality  of  evil  as  forcibly 
as  any  system  of  dualism,  and  yet  produces  a  practical 
faith  in  good  as  being  stronger  than  evil  and  sure  to  con¬ 
quer  it.  In  social  life  it  reconciles  the  authority  of  hu¬ 
man  law  with  the  freedom  of  individual  thought  and 
action.  In  the  best  Christian  governments,  we  find  all 
the  order  which  a  despotism  can  guarantee,  with  all  the 
freedom  to  which  a  democracy  can  aspire.  No  such  social 
organization  is  to  be  found  outside  of  Christendom.  How 
can  this  be,  unless  it  is  somehow  connected  with  Chris¬ 
tianity  ? 

The  civilization  of  Christendom  consists  in  a  practical 
reconciliation  of  antagonist  tendencies.  It  is  a  “  pleroma  ” 
in  social  life,  a  fulness  of  concord,  a  harmony  of  many 
parts.  The  harmony  is  indeed  by  no  means  complete,  for 
the  millennium  has  not  arrived.  As  yet  the  striking  fea¬ 
ture  of  Christendom  is  quantity,  power,  variety,  fulness ; 
not  as  yet  co-operation,  harmony,  peace,  union.  Powers 
are  first  developed,  which  are  afterward  to  be  harmonized. 
The  sword  is  not  yet  beaten  into  a  ploughshare,  nor  has 
universal  peace  arrived.  Yet  such  is  the  inevitable  ten¬ 
dency  of  things.  As  knowledge  spreads,  as  wealth  in¬ 
creases,  as  the  moral  force  of  the  world  is  enlarged,  law, 
more  and  more,  takes  the  place  of  force.  Men  no  longer 

wear  swords  bv  their  sides  to  defend  themselves  from 

«/ 

attack.  If  attacked,  they  call  the  policeman.  Towns  are 
no  longer  fortified  with  walls,  nor  are  the  residences  of 
noblemen  kept  in  a  state  of  defence.  They  are  all  folded  in 
the  peaceful  arms  of  national  law.  So  far  the  atonement 
has  prevailed.  Only  nations  still  continue  to  fight ;  but 


THE  TEN  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY. 


509 


the  time  is  at  hand  when  international  law,  the  parliament 
of  the  world,  the  confederation  of  man,  shall  take  the  place 
of  standing  armies  and  iron-clad  navies. 

So,  in  society,  internal  warfare  must,  sooner  or  later, 
come  to  an  end.  Pauperism  and  crime  must  be  treated 
according  to  Christian  methods.  Criminals  must  be  re¬ 
formed,  and  punishment  must  be  administered  in  reference 
to  that  end.  Co-operation  in  labor  and  trade  must  take 
the  place  of  competition.  The  principles  by  means  of 
which  these  vast  results  will  be  brought  about  are  already 
known ;  the  remaining  difficulties  are  in  their  application. 
Since  slavery  fell  in  the  United  States,  one  great  obstacle 
to  the  progress  of  man  is  removed.  The  next  social  evils 
in  order  will  be  next  assailed,  and,  one  by  one,  will  be  de¬ 
stroyed.  Christianity  is  becoming  more  and  more  practi¬ 
cal,  and  its  application  to  life  is  constantly  growing  more 
vigorous  and  wise. 

The  law  of  human  life  is,  that  the  development  of 
differences  must  precede  their  reconciliation.  Variety 
must  precede  harmony,  analysis  must  prepare  the  way  for 
synthesis,  opposition  must  go  before  union.  Christianity, 
as  a  powerful  stimulus  applied  to  the  human  mind,  first 
develops  all  the  tendencies  of  the  soul ;  and  afterward,  by 
its  atoning  influence  on  the  heart,  reconciles  them.  Christ 
is  the  Prince  of  Peace.  He  came  to  make  peace  between 
man  and  God,  between  man  and  man,  between  law  and 
love,  reason  and  faith,  freedom  and  order,  progress  and 
conservatism.  But  he  first  sends  the  sword,  afterward  the 
olive-branch.  Nevertheless,  universal  unity  is  the  object 
and  end  of  Christianity. 


INDEX 


OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  AUTHORS  CONSULTED  IN  THE 
PREPARATION  OF  THIS  WORK. 

- - »  - 


Ackermann  (D.  C.).  Das  Christliche  im  Plato.  Hamburg.  1835. 

(Translated  in  Clark’s  Theological  Library.)  (Greece.) 

AIschylus,  and  other  Greek  Poets.  (Greece.) 

Alger  (Wm.  R.).  A  Critical  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life. 
Philadelphia :  Childs.  1864. 

Allen  (Joseph  H.).  Hebrew  Men  and  Times.  Boston.  1861.  (Judaea.) 
American  Oriental  Society,  Journal  of  the.  New  Haven  ;  published 
annually.  (Oriental  Religions.) 

Ampere  (J.  J.  A.).  L’Histoire  Romaine.  Paris.  1864.  -(Rome.) 
-  La  Science  en  Orient. 

Anthropological  Society  of  London,  Memoirs  of  (commenced  in  1863-64). 
Asiatic  Journal,  1816-1843.  London. 

Asiatic  Researches  (commenced  London.  1801). 

Baldwin  (John  D.).  Pre-Historic  Nations.  New  York.  1869. 
Banherjea  (Rev.  K.  M.).  Dialogues  on  Hindoo  Philosophy,  comprising 
the  Nyaya,  Sankhya,  and  Yyasa.  London.  1861.  (Brahmanism.) 
Baur  (F.  C.).  Symbolik  und  Mythologie.  Stuttgart.  1829. 

Bleek  (Arthur  Henry).  A  vesta.  The  religious  Books  of  the  Parsees. 
Translated  into  English  from  Spiegel’s  German  translation.  Hert¬ 
ford.  1864.  (Zoroaster.) 

Boekh.  Manetho  und  der  Hundstern  period.  Berlin.  1840.  (Egypt.) 
Burnouf  (Eugene).  Commentaire  sur  le  Ya£na.  Paris.  1823. 

-  Introduction  a  l’Histoire  du  Buddhisme  Indien. 

Paris.  1844. 

- -  Le  Bhagavata  Purana,  on  Histoire  Poetique  de 

Krichna.  Paris.  1840. 

Burnouf  (£mile).  Essai  sur  le  Yeda.  1863. 

Brugsch.  Histoire  de  l’Egypte.  Leipzig.  1859. 

-  Aus  dem  Orient. 

Bunsen  (C.  C.  J.).  Bibelwerk.  Leipzig  :  Brockhaus.  1858.  (Judaea.) 

-  Gott  in  der  Geschichte.  Leipzig.  1857. 

-  iEgyp ten’s  Stelle  in  der  Weltgeschichte.  Hamburg. 

1845  -  1867.  English  translation,  1868. 

Chabas  (F. ).  Les  Pasteurs  en  Egypt.  Amsterdam.  1868. 

Chastel  (Etienne).  Histoire  de  la  Destruction  du  Paganisme  dans 
T Empire  d’Orient.  Paris.  1850. 

Chinese  Recorder  and  Missionary  Journal.  Foochow. 


512 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


Cocker  (B.  F.).  Christianity  and  Greek  Philosophy.  New  York.  1870. 

(Greece. ) 

Colebrooke  (H.  T.).  Miscellaneous  Essays;  in  two  vols.  London. 
1837.  (India.) 

Creuzer  (Friedrich).  Symholik  und  Mythologie  der  alten  Yolker. 

Leipzig.  1836.  (Greece,  India,  Persia.) 

Cudworth  (Ralph).  The  True  Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe. 
American  edition.  2  vols.  1837. 

Cunningham  (Alexander).  The  Ancient  Geography  of  India.  Lon¬ 
don.  1871.  (Buddhism.) 

- - Bhilsa  Topes  of  India.  (Buddhism.) 

Dabistan,  The.  Translated  from  the  Persian.  Oriental  Translation  Fund. 

1843.  (Persia,  Brahmanism,  Judiea,  Islam.) 

Dall  (Mrs.  Caroline  H.).  Egypt’s  Place  in  History.  Boston.  1868. 
Daumas  (Le  General  E. ).  La  vie  Arabe  et  la  Societe  Musulmane. 
Paris.  1869. 

David  (Emeric).  Jupiter  et  sa  Culte.  Paris.  1833.  (Rome.) 

De  Rouge  (Yicomte  de).  Examen  critique  de  l’ouvrage  de  M.  Bunsen. 
Paris.  1847.  (Egypt.)  , 

-  Etudes  sur  le  rituel  Funeraire.  Paris.  1860. 

- - - Le  poeme  de  Pentaour.  Paris.  1856.  (Egypt.) 

• -  Memoire  sur  les  Monuments  des  six  premieres 

dynasties.  Paris.  1866.  (Egypt.) 

Dollinger  (John  J.  I.).  The  Gentile  and  the  Jew.  London.  Long¬ 
man,  1862.  (Greece,  Rome,  Judiea,  Egypt,  &c.) 

Duncker  (Max).  Geschichte  des  alterthums.  Berlin.  1863.  (Egypt, 
Babylon,  Judaia,  Assyria,  India,  Persia.) 

Dupekron  (Anquetil).  Le  Zendavesta.  Paris.  1771.  3  vols.  (Zo¬ 

roaster.  ) 

Dutt  (Shoshee  Chunder).  Essays.  Calcutta.  1854.  (Brahmanism.) 
Ebers.  zEgypten  und  die  Bucher  Mosis.  1870. 

Ewald  (Heinrich).  Geschichte  des  volkes  Israel  (the  first  two  volumes 
translated  by  Russell  Martineau).  Gottingen.  1845-1851.  (Judaea.) 
Farrar  (F.  W.).  Families  of  Speech.  London.  1870. 

Fauche  (Hippolyte).  Le  Maha-Bharata,  traduit  completement  du 
Sanscrit  en  Fram^ais.  Paris.  1863. 

- Le  Ramayana,  traduit  en  Framjais.  Paris. 

1864.  (Brahmanism.) 

Fergusson  (James).  The  Illustrated  Handbook  of  Architecture.  Lon¬ 
don.  1855. 

Friedlieb  (J.  H.).  Die  SibyllinischenWeissagungen.  Leipzig.  1852. 
(Rome.) 

Gobineau.  Les  Religions  et  les  Philosophies  dans  l’Asie  Centrale.  1866. 
Gerhard  (Eduard).  Griechische  Mythologie,  3  Banden.  Berlin.  1854. 
(Greece.) 

Gibbon  (Edward).  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

Grimm  (Jacob).  Deutsche  Mythologie,  Dritte  Ausgabe.  Gottingen. 
1854.  (Germany.) 

Grote  (George).  History  of  Greece.  New  York  :  Harper  and  Brothers. 
1854.  (Greece.) 

- -  Plato  and  the  other  Companions  of  Socrates.  Lon¬ 
don  :  Murray.  1867.  (Greece.) 

Hardwick  (Charles).  Christ  and  other  Masters.  London  :  Macmil¬ 
lan.  1863.  (Judiea,  India,  China,  Egypt,  Persia.) 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


513 


Hardy  (R.  Spence).  Eastern  Monachism.  London  :  Partridge  and 
Oakey.  1850.  (Buddhism.) 

- -  A  Manual  of  Buddhism  in  its  Modern  Develop¬ 
ment.  London  :  Partridge  and  Oakey.  1853.  (Buddhism. ) 
Harivansa.  Appendix  to  the  Mahabharata,  translated  by  Langlois. 

Oriental  Translation  Fund.  London.  1834.  (India.) 

Hartung,  (J.  A.).  Die  Religion  der  Rbmer.  Erlangen.  1836. 
- Die  Religion  und  Mythologie  der  Griechen.  Leip¬ 
zig.  1865. 

Haug  (Martin).  Essays  on  the  Sacred  Language,  Writings,  and  Re¬ 
ligion  of  the  Parsees.  Bombay.  1862.  (Persia.) 

Hedge  (F.  H.).  The  Primeval  World  of  Hebrew  Tradition.  Boston: 

Roberts  &  Brothers.  1870.  (Judaea.) 

Heeren  (A.  H.  L. ).  Historical  Researches  into  the  Politics,  Intercourse, 
and  Trade  of  the  Principal  Nations  of  Antiquity.  (English  transla¬ 
tion. )  Oxford.  1833. 

Heffter  (M.  W.).  Mythologie  der  Griechen  und  Rbmer.  Leipzig. 

1854.  (Greeks  and  Romans. ) 

Herodotus,  and  other  Greek  Historians.  (Greece.) 

Higginson  (Edward).  The  Spirit  of  the  Bible.  London.  1863. 
(Judaea. ) 

Hitopadesa.  Translated  by  Francis  Johnson.  London  and  Hertford. 
1848.  (India.) 

Hue  (l’Abbe  Evariste  Regis).  Souvenirs  d’un  voyage  dans  la  Tartaric, 
le  Thibet  et  la  Chine  pendant  les  annees  1844,  1845,  et  1846.  Paris. 
1852. 

— - -  Le  Christianisme  en  Chine.  (1857.) 

(Both  these  works  have  been  translated  into  English.)  (Buddhism.) 
Inman  (F. ).  Ancient  Faiths  embodied  in  Ancient  Names.  2  vols. 
London.  1868. 

Jones  (Sir  William).  Works.  13  vols.  1807. 

Julien  (M.  Stanislas).  Memoires  sur  les  contrees  occidentales,  tra- 
duites  du  Cliinois  en  Frai^ais.  Paris.  1857.  (China.) 

- -  Le  Livre  des  Recompenses  et  des  Peines. 

Paris.  1835.  (Oriental  Translation  Fund. )  (China.) 

- -  Le  Tao-te  King,  le  livre  de  la  voie,  et  de  la 

vertu,  par  le  philosophe  Lao-tseu.  Paris.  1842.  (China.) 

Kenrick  (John).  Ancient  Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs.  Redheld.  New 
York.  1852. 

Klaussen  (R.  H.).  .Eneas  und  die  Penaten.  (Influence  of  the  Greek 
Religion  on  Italian  Religions. )  1839. 

Kleuker  (Johann  Friedrich).  Anhang  zum  Zend-avesta.  Leipzig 
und  Riga.  1781. 

_ Zend-avesta,  Zoroaster’s  Lebendiges 

Wort.  Riga.  1777.  (From  the  French  of  A.  Du  Perron. ) 

Knox  (R. ).  The  Races  of  Men.  London.  1850. 

Koeppen  (C.  F.).  Die  Religion  des  Buddha.  Berlin.  1857. 

- -  Die  Lamaisclie  hierarchie.  Berlin.  1859. 

Kremer  (Alfred  von).  Geschichte  der  herrehenden  Ideen  des  Islams. 
Leipzig.  1868. 

Kurtz  (Friedrich).  Allgemeine  Mythologie.  Leipzig.  1869. 

Laing  (Samuel).  Chronicle  of  the  Kings  of  Norway.  London  :  Long¬ 
man.  1844.  (Scandinavia.) 

22* 


GG 


514 


INDEX  OF  AUTHOKS. 


Landseer  (John).  Sabsean  Researches.  London.  1823. 

Lane  (Edward  William).  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Modern  Egyp¬ 
tians.  2  vols.  5th  edition.  London.  1848. 
- Selections  from  the  Kuran,  with  an  inter¬ 
woven  Commentary.  London.  1843. 

Lanoye  (F.  de).  Rameses  the  Great.  New  York  :  Scribner.  1870. 
(Egypt.) 

Lassen  (C.).  Indische  Altertliumskunde.  (4  Bande.)  Bonn.  1847. 
Latham  (R.  G.).  The  Natural  History  of  the  Varieties  of  Man.  Lon¬ 
don.  1850. 

- Descriptive  Ethnology.  London.  1859. 

Legge  (James).  The  Chinese  Classics,  with  a  Translation,  Critical  and 
Exegetical  Notes,  Prolegomena,  and  copious  Indexes.  Hongkong. 
1861-1865. 

Lenormant  (Francois).  A  Manual  of  the  Ancient  History  of  the  East. 
London  :  Asher  k  Co.  1869.  (Judiea,  Egypt,  Assyria,  Babylon,  Per¬ 
sia,  Phoenicia,  Carthage,  Arabia.) 

Lepsius  (Richard).  Letters  from  Egypt,  Ethiopia,  and  the  Peninsula 
of  Sinai.  London:  Bohn.  1853.  (Egypt.) 

■ -  Uber  die  gotter  der  vier  elemente.  Berlin.  1856. 

(Egypt.) 

- -  Das  Todtenbuch  der  iEgypter.  Leipzig.  1842. 

Lesley  (J.  P. ).  Man’s  Origin  and  Destiny.  Philadelphia  :  Lippincott 
k  Co.  1868.  (Egypt,  &c.) 

Lin-Le.  The  History  of  the  Ti-Ping  Revolution.  London.  1866. 
(China.) 

Maine.  Ancient  Law.  London. 

Malan  (S.  C. ).  God  in  China.  Shin  or  Shangte  ?  London  (no  date). 
Mackay  (Robert  William).  The  Progress  of  the  Intellect  as  exempli¬ 
fied  in  the  Religious  Development  of  the  Greeks  and  Hebrews.  2  vols. 
London.  1850. 

Maury  (L.  J.  Alfred).  Histoire  des  Religions  de  la  Grece  Antique. 
Paris.  1857.  (Greece.) 

-  Croyance  et  l’Antiquite.  Paris.  1863. 

Mariette  (A.  E. ).  Clioix  des  Monuments  decou  verts  pendant  le  deblaye- 
ment  du  Serapeum  de  Memphis.  Paris.  1856. 

- 1 -  Memoire  sur  le  mere  d’Apis.  1856. 

Meadows  (T.  Taylor).  The  Chinese  and  their  Rebellions.  1856. 
(China.) 

Milman  (Henry  Hart).  The  History  of  the  Jews.  London.  1835. 
(Judaea. ) 

— - -  The  History  of  Latin  Christianity.  4tli  edi¬ 

tion.  London.  1867. 

Mohammedan  Dynasties  in  Spain.  Oriental  Translation  Fund.  Lon¬ 
don.  1840.  (Islam.) 

Mommsen  (Theodore).  Romische  Geschichte.  3d  edition.  Berlin. 

1861.  3  vols.  8vo.  Translated  into  English.  London.  1862.  (Rome.) 
Muir  (J.).  Original  Sanskrit  Texts  on  the  Origin  and  Progress  of  the 
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Muir  (W. ).  Life  of  Mahomet  and  History  of  Islam  to  the  Era  of  the 
Hegira.  London.  1858. 

Mullens  (Rev.  Joseph).  The  Religious  Aspects  of  Hindu  Philosophy 
stated  and  discussed.  London.  I860. 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


515 


Muller  (C.  Ottfried).  Ancient  Art  and  its  Remains.  London :  Bohn. 
1852.  (Greece.) 

-  Literature  of  Ancient  Greece.  London  :  Bald¬ 
win.  1850.  (Greece.) 

-  Die  Dorier.  Breslau.  1825.  Translated  into 

English  by  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis.  Oxford.  1830. 

Muller  (Max).  Rig-Veda  Sanhita,  translated  and  explained.  Yolume 
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• -  History  of  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature.  1860. 

- -  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop.  1870. 

Muller  (Wilhelm).  Geschichte  und  System  der  Altdeutschen  Relig¬ 
ion.  Gottingen.  1844.  (Germany.) 

Niebuhr.  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Rome.  London.  1852. 

Noldeke  (Theodor).  Geschichte  des  Quoran.  Gottingen.  1860. 

Nott  (J.  C.)  and  Gliddon  (Geo.  R.).  Types  of  Mankind.  Philadel¬ 
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Philadelphia.  1857. 

Ouvaroff  (M.).  Essai  sur  les  Mysteres  d’Eleusis.  Paris.  1816. 

Palgrave  ( W illiam  Gifford).  A  Year’s  Journey  through  Central  and 
Eastern  Arabia.  Third  edition.  1866.  London.  (Islam.) 

Pauthier  (G.).  Les  Livres  sacres  de  l’Orient  (containing  the  Chou-king, 
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Perceval  (Caussin  de).  Essai  sur  l’Histoire  des  Arabs,  avant  Islam- 
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Paris.  1859. 

Pigott  (Grenville).  A  Manual  of  Scandinavian  Mythology.  London: 
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Preller  (L. ).  Griechische  Mythologie.  Leipzig.  1854. 

Priaulx  (Osmond  de  B. ).  Qusestiones  Mosaicse.  London.  1842. 

Prichard  (James  Cowles).  The  Eastern  Origin  of  the  Celtic  Nations. 
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Prichard  (J.  C.)  The  Natural  History  of  Man.  London:  Balliere. 
1855.  (Egypt.) 

Prinsep  (James).  Essays  on  Indian  Antiquities.  2  vols.  London. 
1858. 

Rapp  (Adolph).  Die  Religion  und  Sitte  der  Perser.  1865. 

Rawlinson  (George).  Herodotus. 

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Renan  (J.  E. ).  Articles  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes. 

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516 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


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Ritter  (Carl).  The  Comparative  Geography  of  Palestine  and  the  Sina- 
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Ritual  of  the  Buddhist  Priesthood.  (In  Miscellaneous  Oriental  Transla¬ 
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Rixner  (T.  A.).  Handbuch  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophic.  (3  vols. ) 
1829. 

Rod  well  (Rev.  I.  M. ).  The  Coran,  translated  from  the  Arabic.  The 
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Roth  (Eduard.)  Die  Agyptische  und  die  Zoroastrische  Glaubenslehre. 
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Salvador  (J.).  Histoire  des  Institutions  de  Moise.  Paris.  1862. 
(Judsea. ) 

Saint-Hilaire  (J.  Barth£lemy).  Mahomet  et  le  Coran.  Paris. 
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Sale  (George).  The  Koran,  with  preliminary  Dissertations.  Phila¬ 
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Sankhya  Karika,  The,  translated  by  Colebrooke  and  Wilson.  Oriental 
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Schlagintweit  (Emil).  Buddhism  in  Thibet.  Leipzig  and  London. 
1863. 

Schleicher  (August).  Compendium  der  vergleichenden  Grammatik 
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Schwenck  (Konrad).  Die  Mytliologie  der  Romer.  Frankfurt  am 
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- Die  Mythologie  der  YEgypter.  Frankfurt  am 

Main.  1846.  (Egypt.) 

Smith  (William).  Dictionary  of  the  Bible.  Boston  :  Little,  Brown, 
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Smith  (Lieut. -Col.  C.  H.).  Natural  History  of  the  Human  Species. 
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Stanley  (Arthur  P.).  Lectures  on  the  Llistory  of  the  Jewish  Church. 

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Stevenson  (Rev.  J.)  Translation  of  the  Sanhita  of  the  Sama-Veda. 

Oriental  Translation  Fund.  1842.  (India.) 

Tacitus,  The  Works  of.  (Rome  and  Germany.) 

Thorpe  (Benjamin).  Northern  Mythology.  London.  1851.  (Scandi¬ 
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Townley  (James).  The  Reasons  of  the  Laws  of  Moses.  London.  1827. 
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Pali-Buddhistic  Literature,  in  2  vols.  Ceylon.  1837. 

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INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


517 


Upham  (Edward).  Sacred  and  Historical  Books  of  Ceylon.  3  vols. 
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Urquhart  (D.).  The  Spirit  of  the  East.  2  vols.  London.  1839. 
Vambery.  Travels  in  Turkistan. 

Wassiljew  (W.).  Der  Buddhismus,  seine  Dogmen,  Gescliichte,  und 
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Weber  (Albrecht).  Indische  Skizzen.  Berlin.  1857.  (Buddhism.) 
Weil  (Dr.  G.).  Mohammed  der  Prophet,  sein  Leben  und  seine  Lehre. 
Stuttgart.  1843. 

Welcker  (F.  G.).  Griechische  Gotterlehre.  3  Banden.  Gottingen. 
1857. 

Westcott  (B.  A.).  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Gospels.  Boston. 
1862. 

Westergaard  (N.  L.).  Ueher  Buddha’s  Todesjahr.  Breslau.  1862. 
Wheeler  (J.  Talboys).  History  of  India  from  the  Earliest  Times. 
London.  1869. 

Wilkins  (Charles).  The  Bhagvat-Gheeta.  London.  1785. 
Wilkinson  (Sir  J.  Gardner).  The  Ancient  Egyptians.  London:  Mur¬ 
ray.  1854.  5  vols.  8vo.  (Egypt.) 

Williams  (Monier).  Sakoontala,  or  the  Lost  Ring.  Hertford.  1856. 
Wilson  (Andrew).  The  ever-victorious  Army.  Edinburgh.  1868. 
(China.) 

Wilson  (Horace  Hayman).  Select  Works  of.  London.  1861.  Con¬ 
taining  Essays  on  the  Religion  of  the  Hindoos.  2  vols.  Essays  on 
Sanskrit  Literature.  3  vols.  Yischnu  Purana.  3  vols.  1861-1866. 

■ - - -  Select  Specimens  of  the  Theatre  of  the 

Hindoos.  3  vols.  1827. 

- -  Rig-Yeda-Sanhita.  Translated  from  the 

original  Sanskrit.  4  vols.  London.  1850-1866. 

W indischmann  (Friedrich).  Ursagen  des  Arischen  Volker.  Munich. 
1853. 

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Bunddehesch. 

Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morgenlandischen  Gesellscliaft.  Leipzig. 
Commenced  1847. 

Zeller  (E.).  The  Stoics.  Epicureans,  and  Sceptics  (English  translation). 
London.  1870. 


. 


* 


' 

. 


•* 


INDEX 


OF  SUBJECTS  TREATED  IN  THIS  WORK. 


♦ 


A. 

Abraham,  source  of  Hebrew  monotheism, 
403. 

“  his  inspiration,  403. 

“  his  worship  of  the  Most  High 

God,  404. 

“  his  native  home  at  the  source  of 
the  Tigris,  405. 

“  his  historic  character  and  events 
of  his  life,  406. 

“  his  relation  to  Melchisedek,  406. 

“  character  of  his  faith,  408. 

“  his  monotheism  imperfect,  408 

Adam  of  Bremen,  his  account  of  Northern 
Christians,  394 

iEschylus,  his  religious  character,  284. 
Anschar,  missionary  to  the  Swedes,  393. 
Antoninus,  M.  Aurelias, his  religious  char¬ 
acter,  344. 

Apollo  Belvedere,  in  the  Vatican,  289. 
Arabs,  the,  and  Arabia,  452 

“  without  a  history  till  the  time  of 
Mohammed,  452. 

Aristotle,  his  view  of  God,  296. 

Artemis,  or  Diana  as  represented  by  the 
sculptors,  290. 

Aryana-Vaejo,  a  region  of  delight,  184. 

“  “  its  climate  changes  to  cold, 

185. 

“  “  supposed  to  be  in  Central 

Asia,  186. 

Aryans,  the,  in  Central  Asia.  85. 

“  consist  of  seven  races,  86. 

“  their  name  mentioned  in  Manu,  in 
the  Avesta,  and  by  Herodotus, 
87. 

“  their  original  home,  87. 

“  their  mode  of  life,  88. 

“  they  arrive  in  India,  89. 
Atonement,  Christian,  in  its  early  form, 
influenced  by  Egyptian 
thought,  255. 

“  in  its  scholastic  form,  derived 
from  Roman  law,  352. 
Augurs,  their  duties,  337. 

Avesta,  discovered  by  Duperron,  179. 


B. 

Baldur,  his  character  described,  378. 
“  death  of,  the  story,  373. 


Baltic  Sea,  the  Mediterranean  of  modern 
Europe,  359. 

Bona  Dea,  the  good  goddess,  330. 

Bragi,  the  Scandinavian  Apollo,  380. 
Brahma,  chief  deity  in  the  Laws  of  Manu, 
125. 


“  his  worship  has  entirely  disap¬ 
peared,  128. 

Brahmanism,  a  difficult  study,  81. 

“  no  individual  founder,  81. 

“  is  a  one-sided  spiritualism. 

83. 


“  passes  into  pantheism,  84. 

“  becomes  idolatry,  85. 

Buddha,  his  early  tendency  to  devotion ,  148 
“  not  a  proper  name,  but  an  official 
title,  148. 

“  his  birthplace  in  India,  148. 

“  his  different  names  (note),  148. 

“  his  father,  a  prince  of  the  solar 
race,  148. 

'*  his  early  tendency  to  devotion, 
148. 

f‘  he  arrives  at  Nirvana,  149. 
u  devotes  himself  to  teaching,  150. 

“  dies  at  the  age  of  eighty  years, 
150. 


period  of  his  death,  150. 
Buddhism,  Protestantism  of  the  East,  139. 

resemblance  of  its  customs  to 
those  of  the  Romish  Church, 
139. 


its  worship  of  relics  very  an¬ 
cient,  140. 

its  singular  and  beautiful  archi¬ 
tecture,  140. 

its  shrines  for  relics,  141. 
its  rock-cut  temples  and  mon¬ 
asteries,  141. 

cannot  have  been  copied  from 
Catholicism,  141. 
its  interior  resemblance  to  Prot¬ 
estantism,  142. 

its  respect  for  human  freedom 
and  human  rights,  143. 
its  belief  in  the  capacity  of  the 
human  intellect,  144. 
its  monastic  character,  144. 
its  expulsion  from  India,  145. 
the  religion  of  the  Mongol  na¬ 
tions,  146. 

its  scriptures  and  their  discov¬ 
ery,  147. 


520 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 


<< 

il 


Ii 

it 


Ii 

ii 


Buddhists,  their  general  councils,  151. 

“  their  missionaries  and  mission¬ 
ary  spirit,  161. 
their  leading  doctrines ,  153. 
their  idea  of  human  develop¬ 
ment  and  progress,  154. 
their  four  great  truths,  155. 
their  moral  commandments 
156. 

“  their  system  rational  and  hu¬ 

mane,  156. 

“  their  toleration,  157. 

“  their  benevolence  and  hospital¬ 

ity,  158. 

their  worship  and  ritual,  159. 
their  doctrines  of  Karma  and 
Nirvana,  161. 

“  good  and  evil  of  their  system, 

164.  . 

“  their  doctrine  of  transmigra¬ 

tion,  167. 

“  how  far  their  teaching  resem¬ 

bles  Christianity,  167. 
Bundehesch,  opinion  of  Windischmann 
concerning  it,  194. 

“  doctrinal  system  of,  195. 
Burlingame,  Anson,  his  mission,  70. 


C. 


Carthaginians,  their  language  a  form  of 
Hebrew,  400. 

Catholic  religions,  three,  18. 

“  “  teach  the  unity  of  God, 

18. 

“  “  which  have  failed  of 

universality,  19. 

Ceres,  Liber,  Flora,  and  Pomona,  rural 
deities,  330. 

Chaldees  of  Ur,  same  as  modern  Curds, 
405. 

Chandragupta,  contemporary  of  Alexan¬ 
der,  86. 

Cherubim,  its  derivation  from  the  Sphinx, 
252. 

Chinese  civilization,  its  peculiarities,  32. 

prose  of  Asia,  82. 
its  antiquity,  33. 
its  grotesque  charac¬ 
ter,  36. 

Chinese  empire,  its  size,  33. 

history  commences,  34. 
language,  34. 
wall  and  canals ,  34. 
artesian  wells,  34 

“  inoculation,  bronze  money,  mari- 


ii 

ii 

a 


it 

u 

a 

a 


a 

a 

u 


Chinese  viceroys,  or  governors  of  prov¬ 
inces,  42. 

“  agriculture  carried  to  perfection, 
43. 

“  Kings,”  or  sacred  books,  47. 
philosophy  in  its  later  develop¬ 
ments,  52 

doctrine  of  the  grand  extreme,  62. 
doctrine  of  Yang  and  Yin,  or  the 
positive  and  negative  essences, 
62. 

doctrine  of  holy  men ,  53. 
people,  their  amiable  character, 

59. 

“  described  by  Lieutenant 

Forbes,  59. 

“  described  by  Du  Ilalde, 

60. 

“  described  by  Meadows , 

60. 

“  treatment  of  woman,  61. 

Christian  apologists ,  their  errors,  4. 

“  “  have  regarded  most 

religions  as  human 
inventions,  4. 

“  “  have  considered  them 

as  debasing  super¬ 
stitions,  4. 

Christianity  adapted  to  the  Northern 
races,  395. 

“  a  pleroma,  or  fulness  of  life, 
492. 

“  an  inclusive  system,  not  ex¬ 

clusive,  493. 

“  summary  of  its  relation  to 

other  religions,  494. 
a  religion  of  progress,  507. 
a  religion  of  universal  unity, 
508. 

has  the  power  of  continued 
pi*ogress ,  29. 

in  its  various  developments, 
29. 

meets  the  positive  and  nega¬ 
tive  side  of  Brahmanism, 
24. 

of  Buddhism,  25. 
of  Confucius,  26. 
of  Zoroaster,  26. 
of  Egypt,  27. 
of  Greece,  27. 

De  Natura  Deorum,” 


u 

it 


ii 

il 

ii 

il 

a 


Cicero,  his  work 
341. 

“  on  the  speech  of  Csesar,342. 
Circumcision,  its  origin  and  extent,  251. 
Cleanthes,  the  Stoic,  his  hymn,  285. 
Comparative  Philology  its  discoveries, 
86. 


il 

art  of  printing,  and  libraries, 

If 

Theology  either  analytical  or 

35. 

li 

cc 

synthetical,  2. 

ll 

people  possess  freedom  (note),  37. 

its  relation  to  Com¬ 

ll 

government  based  on  education, 

parative  Geogra¬ 

38. 

it 

phy,  2. 

II 

monarchy  a  family,  38. 

it 

its  relation  to  hu¬ 

1C 

government  a  literary  aristocracy, 

man  progress,  2. 
must  do  justice  to 

38. 

ii 

il 

ll 

civil-service  examinations,  39. 

all  religions,  3. 

ii 

public  boards  and  their  duties, 

il 

il 

is  still  in  its  infan¬ 

42. 

cy,  3. 

INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


521 


Comparative  Theology  is  a  science,  3. 

“  “  "will  furnish  new 

evidence  to  the 
truth  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  13. 

“  ‘‘  Will  show  Chris¬ 

tianity  to  be  a 
catholic  religion, 
adapted  to  all 
races,  15. 

“  “  will  show  Christian¬ 

ity  to  be  all-sided, 

21. 

“  “  will  show  Chris¬ 

tianity  capable  of 
progress,  29. 

“  “  in  its  probable  re¬ 

sults,  30. 

Confucius,  his  birth  and  ancestors,  44,  45. 

“  his  influence,  44,  45. 

“  events  of  his  life,  45,  46. 

“  edits  the  sacred  books ,  or  Kings , 
4 t . 

“  his  own  writings,  47. 

“  his  Table-Talk,  extracts  from, 

48,  49. 

“  had  a  large  organ  of  venera¬ 
tion,  50. 

“  had  great  energy  and  persisten¬ 
cy,  51. 

“  his  books  distributed  by  tract 

societies,  51. 

“  one  thousand  six  hundred  and 

sixty  temples  erected  to  his 
memory,  51. 

“  defects  in  his  doctrine,  58. 

“  his  system  compared  with 

Christianity,  59. 

“  good  influence  of  his  teachings, 

58. 

Conversion  of  the  German  races  to  Chris¬ 
tianity,  390. 

Cudworth  and  the  Platonists  have  defended 
the  Greek  philosophers,  5. 


D. 

David,  his  life  and  epoch  in  human  his¬ 
tory,  422. 

“  his  great  military  successes,  422. 

“  his  prudence  and  sagacity  in  af¬ 
fairs,  423. 

“  a  man  of  genius,  poet,  musician, 
425. 

“  Book  of  Psalms  a  record  of  his  life, 
425. 

“  his  Psalms  often  rise  to  the  level  of 
Christianity,  426. 

Decay  of  the  Roman  religion ,  339. 

Denmark  and  Norway  converted  to  Chris¬ 
tianity,  392. 

Devil,  the,  in  Old  and  New  Testament, 
498.  . 

Divination,  Cicero  speaks  concerning, 339  - 
341. 

Doctrinal  influence  of  the  Egyptian  relig¬ 
ion  on  Christianity,  253. 

Downfall  of  German  heathenism,  391. 


Druids  and  Scalds ,  355. 

Duad,  the,  in  all  religions,  496. 

Dualism  or  monotheism  the  doctrine  of  the 
Avesta,  203. 

“  of  the  Scandinavian  system,  384. 

“  in  Christianity,  496. 

Duperron,  Anquetil,  his  zeal  for  science, 

178. 

discovers  the  Avesta 
in  India,  179. 


E. 


tt 

elder, 

tt 

its  au 

tt 

prose 

H 

tt 

it 

tt 

(4 

it 

It 

tt 

it 

tt 

it 

it 

Ecclesiastes,  a  wonderful  description  of 
utter  despair,  435. 

Eddas,  the,  chief  source  of  our  knowledge 
of  the  early  Scandinavians,  363. 
elder,  or  poetic,  described,  364. 
its  author,  Saemund,  364. 
prose,  by  Snorro  Sturteson,  369. 
its  contents,  369. 
its  account  of  creation,  370. 
its  account  of  the  gods  and 
giants,  371. 
story  of  Baldur,  372. 
adventures  of  Thor,  374. 
consummation  of  all  things, 
375. 

Egyptian  chronology,  its  uncertainty,  231. 
“  “  opinions  of  Egyptol¬ 

ogists  concerning, 
231,232. 

“  “  point  of  contact 

with  that  of  the 
Hebrews,  233. 
civilization,  its  extent,  209. 
architecture,  its  characteristics, 
209. 

knowledge  of  arts,  210. 
love  for  making  records,  210. 
mural  paintings  in  tombs,  210. 
sphinxes  discovered  by  Mariette, 
213. 

mummies,  their  anatomy,  237. 
religion,  its  influence  on  Juda¬ 
ism,  250. 

“  its  influence  on  Chris¬ 
tianity,  253. 

“  “  its  triads,  254. 

Egyptians,  ancient,  their  great  interest  in 
religion,  214. 

“  “  their  gods  on  the  oldest 

monuments,  215. 

“  “  lived  in  order  to  wor¬ 

ship,  215. 

“  “  number  of  their  festi¬ 

vals,  216. 
their  priests,  217. 
their  doctrine  of  im¬ 
mortality,  218. 
their  ritual  of  the  dead, 
219. 

their  funeral  ceremo¬ 
nies,  220. 

their  domestic  and  so¬ 
cial  virtues,  221. 
specimen  of  their 
hymns,  222,  223. 


tt 

a 

<< 

tt 

tt 

a 

tt 

tt 


u 

tt 


522 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 


Egyptians,  ancient,  mj'gterious character  of 
their  theology,  223. 

“  “  sources  of  our  knowl¬ 

edge  concerning, 224. 
“  modern  works  upon 
(note),  225. 

“  “  their  doctrine  of  trans¬ 

migration  (note), 
226. 

“  “  their  animal  worship, 

227. 

“  “  their  tendency  to  na¬ 

ture-worship  229. 

“  “  their  origin,  230 -236. 

Epictetus,  his  view  of  religion,  343. 

Epicureans,  believed  in  God,  but  not  in  re¬ 
ligion,  297. 

Essential  idea  of  Brahmanism,  21. 

“  “  of  Buddhism,  21. 

“  “  of  Confucius,  22. 

“  “of  Zoroaster,  22. 

“  “  of  Egypt,  23. 

“  “of  Greece,  24. 

Ethnic  religions,  defined,  15. 

“  “  most  religions  are  such, 

15. 

“  “  related  to  ethnology,  15. 

“  “  limited  to  races,  17. 

Euripides,  his  tragedy  anti-religious,  285. 


F. 


Gods  of  Greece  worshipped  by  the  Dori¬ 
ans,  were  Apollo  and 
Artemis,  274. 

“  “  “  local  distribution  of,  275. 

“  “  “  first  symbolical,  afterward 

personal,  276. 

“  “  “  in  Hesiod  and  Ilomer,  277. 

“  “  “  poetic  character  of,  279. 

“  “  “  in  Homer  very  human 

beings,  280. 

“  “  “  as  described  by  the  lyric 

poets,  283. 

“  “  “  as  described  by  the  trage¬ 

dians,  284. 

“  “  “  as  unfolded  by  the  artists, 

286. 

“  “  “  as  seen  in  the  works  of 

Phidias,  287. 

“  “  “  as  described  by  the  phi¬ 

losophers,  291. 

“  “  “  how  related  to  Christian¬ 

ity,  310. 

Gods  of  the  Vedas  are  the  evil  spirits  of  the 

Avesta,  202. 

Greece,  its  physical  geography,  259. 

“  its  mountains,  climate,  and  soil, 

260. 

“  its  language  akin  to  Sanskrit,  261. 
“  its  people  an  Aryan  race,  262. 

“  first  inhabited  by  the  Pelasgians, 
262. 

“  afterward  received  the  Dorians, 

264. 


Faunus,  an  old  Italian  god,  330. 

Fenrir,  the  wolf,  how  he  was  fastened, 
382. 

Feudal  system,  its  essential  character,  391. 
Flamens,  priests  of  particular  deities,  336. 
Fontus,  god  of  fountains,  328. 

Frey,  and  his  daughter  Freyja,  379. 


G. 

Geiger,  Swedish  history  quoted,  357. 
Genius,  a  Roman  god,  329. 

German  races  essentially  Protestant,  395. 
German  tribes  converted  by  Arian  mission¬ 
aries,  506. 

Gods  of  Egypt,  the  three  orders  of,  239. 

“  “  “  names  of  the  first  order, 

239. 

“  “  “  character  of  the  first  order, 

240. 

“  “  “  significant  of  the  divine 

unity,  242. 

“  “  “  second  order  of,  their  hu¬ 

man  qualities,  243 

“  “  “  third  order  of,  the  Osiris 

group,  242. 

“  “  Greece,  before  Ilomer,  270. 

“  “  “  oldest  were  the  Uranids, 

270. 

“  “  “  second  race  of,  the  Titans, 

271. 

“  “  “  third  race  of,  the  Olym¬ 

pians,  271. 

“  “  “  the  oldest  were  gods  of  the 

elements,  272. 


influenced  powerfully  by  Egypt, 


Greek 

U 


( 


l 


< 


( 


< 


( 


< 


c 


c 


t 

( 

( 


( 


( 

( 


mysteries,  derived  from  Asia  and 
Egypt,  302. 

gods  of  belong  to  the 
underworld,  302. 

“  alien  to  the  Greek 

mind,  303 

“  Eleusinian,  in  honor  of 

Ceres,  305. 

“  in  honor  of  Bacchus, 

derived  from  India, 

305. 


< 


religion, 

il 


Orphic,  and  their  doc¬ 
trines,  306. 

an  essentially  human  relig¬ 
ion,  266. 

its  gods,  men  and  women, 
267. 

has  no  founder  or  restorer 
or  priesthood,  267. 
its  gods  evolved,  not 
emanations,  268. 
its  freedom  and  hilarity, 
269. 


as  viewed  by  Paul,  308. 
as  regarded  by  the  early 
Christian  fathers,  312. 
and  philosophy,  a  prep¬ 
aration  for  Christianity, 


313- 


worship,  sacrifices,  prayers,  and  fes¬ 
tivals,  297. 

“  in  early  times,  298. 

“  had  numerous  festivals, 

299. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


523 


Greek  worship,  connected  with  augurs  and 
oracles,  300. 

Gylfi,  deluding  of,  in  the  Edda,  369 


H. 


Ilaruspices,  derived  from  Etruria,  338. 
Havamal,  or  proverbs  of  the  Scandinavians, 
366. 


Heathen  religions  must  contain  more  truth 
than  error,  6. 

4< 

u 

cannot  have  been  hu¬ 

a 

a  • 

man  inventions,  6. 

it 

a 

must  contain  some  reve¬ 
lation  from  God,  8. 

ti 

u 

how  viewed  by  Christ 

a 

1 1 

and  his  apostles,  9. 

u 

tt 

how  treated  by  Paul  at 
Athens,  10. 

it 

a 

how  regarded  by  the 
early  apologists,  12. 

Heimdall,  warder  of  the  gods,  380 
Herder,  his  description  of  David,  425. 
Hesiod,  his  account  of  the  three  groups  of 
gods,  270. 

Hindoo  Epics,  Ramayana  and  Mahabha- 
rata,  128. 

“  “  they  refer  to  the  time  succeeding 
the  Vedic  age,  128. 

“  “  composed  before  the  time  of 
Buddhism,  129. 

Hindoos,  antagonisms  of  their  character, 
82. 

acute  in  speculations,  but  super¬ 
stitious,  82. 

“  unite  luxury  and  asceticism,  82. 

“  tend  to  idealism  and  religious 
spiritualism,  83. 

“  their  doctrine  of  Maya,  84. 
Hindoo  year,  calendar  of,  132. 

“  “  begins  in  April,  a  sacred 

month,  132. 

Holy  of  Holies,  in  the  Egyptian  and  Jew¬ 
ish  temples,  252. 

Homer,  his  description  of  the  gods,  280. 
Horace,  his  view  of  religion,  346. 

Hyksos,  constitute  the  middle  monarchy, 

232. 

“  expelled  from  Egypt  after  five 
hundred  years,  233. 

“  Hebrews  in  Egypt  during  their 
ascendency,  234,  235. 

“  or  Shepherd  Kings  in  Egypt,  213. 
“  a  Semitic  people  from  Asia,  232. 

“  conquered  Lower  Egypt  b.  c.  2000, 

233. 

Hyndla,  song  of,  extracts  from,  366. 


I. 

Icelanders  converted  to  Christianity,  394. 
Incarnation,  the  fundamental  doctrine  of 
Christianity,  28. 

India,  always  a  land  of  mystery,  81. 

“  overrun  by  conquerors,  81. 

Infinite  and  finite  elements  in  Brahmanism 
and  Christianity,  137. 


Injustice  done  to  ethnic  religions,  4. 

Inspiration,  its  origin  in  the  intuitive 
faculty,  439. 

Isis  and  Osiris,  their  legend,  from  Plu¬ 
tarch,  244. 

“  “  “  explanations  of  their 

myth,  246. 

“  “  “  identified  with  the  first 

and  second  order,  248. 


J. 

Janus,  one  of  the  oldest  of  Roman  gods, 

322. 

“  presided  over  beginnings  and  end¬ 
ings,  322. 

“  invoked  before  other  gods,  322. 

“  his  temple  open  in  war,  closed  in 
peace,  322. 

“  believed  by  Creuzer  to  have  an  In¬ 
dian  origin,  322. 

“  has  his  chief  feast  in  January,  323. 
“  a  Sabine  god  on  Mount  Janiculum, 

323. 

Jews,  a  Semitic  race,  399. 

Job,  its  grandeur  of  thought  and  expres¬ 
sion,  438. 

Jones,  Sir  William,  his  life  and  works,  78. 

“  “  progress  since  his  time, 

80. 

Judaism,  a  preparation  for  Christianity, 
444. 

“  monotheistic  after  the  captivity, 
444. 

“  influenced  by  Greek  philosophy, 

444. 

“  its  process  of  development,  445. 
“  at  first  childlike  and  narrow, 
446. 

“  the  seed  of  Christianity.  446. 

Juno,  queen  of  heaven,  and  female  Jupi¬ 
ter,  324. 

“  goddess  of  womanhood,  324. 

“  her  chief  feast  the  Matronalia  in 
March,  324. 

“  her  month  of  June  favorable  for 
wedlock,  325. 

Jupiter,  derived  his  name  from  the  San¬ 
skrit,  324. 

“  had  many  temples  in  Rome,  324. 

“  god  of  the  weather,  of  storm,  of 
lightning,  324. 


K. 

“  Kings,”  Chinese,  names  and  number,  47. 
“  teach  a  personal  God,  57. 

“  republished  by  Confucius,  47. 


L. 

Language  of  Ancient  Egypt,  236. 

Lao-tse,  founder  of  Tao-ism,  50,  52. 

“  called  a  dragon  by  Confucius,  51. 
“  three  forms  of  his  doctrine,  54. 
Lares,  gods  of  home,  328. 


524 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 


Loki,  the  god  of  cunning,  381. 

Lower  Egypt,  gods  worshipped  in,  248. 
Lucretius,  his  view  of  religion,  343. 

Luna,  the  moon,  a  Sabine  deity,  327. 
Lustrations,  or  great  acts  of  atonement, 
338. 


M. 


Magna  Mater,  a  foreign  worship  at  Rome, 
330. 

Maine,  his  work  on  ancient  law  quoted, 
351. 

Manu,  laws  of,  when  written,  100. 
account  of  Creation,  101. 
dignity  of  the  Brahmans,  103. 
importance  of  the  Gayatri,  104. 
account  of  the  twice-born  man,  105. 
description  of  ascetic  duties,  106. 
the  anchorite  described,  107. 
duties  of  the  ruler  described,  108. 
crimes  and  penalties  described,  109. 
the  law  of  castes  described,  110. 
penance  and  expiation  described, 
110. 

respect  for  cows  enjoined,  111. 
transmigration  and  final  beatitude, 
112. 

Maritime  character  of  the  Scandinavians, 
3G1. 

Mars,  originally  an  agricultural  god,  330. 
Materialism  in  Christian  doctrines,  derived 
from  Egypt,  256. 

Mater  Matuta,  Latin  goddess  of  the  dawn 
(note),  325,  327- 

Melchisedek,  king  of  justice  and  king  of 
peace,  407. 

Minerva,  her  name  derived  from  an  Etrus¬ 
can  word,  325. 

“  goddess  of  mental  activity,  325. 

“  one  of  the  three  deities  of  the 
“  capitol,  325. 

Missionary  work  of  Christianity,  why 
checked,  506. 

Moabite  inscription  in  the  Hebrew  dialect, 
400. 

Mohammed,  recent  works  concerning,  448. 
“  lives  of,  by  Muir,  Sprenger, 
Weil,  and  others,  449. 

“  essays  on  his  life  by  Bahador, 
450. 

**  prophecies  of,  in  the  Old  Tes¬ 

tament,  451. 

“  lived  a  private  life  for  forty 
“  years,  454. 

“  his  early  religious  tendencies, 

454. 

his  inspirations,  454. 
his  biography  in  the  Koran, 

455. 

his  mother’s  death,  456. 
his  first  converts,  457. 
protected  by  his  tribe,  458. 
his  temporary  relapse,  460. 
and  his  followers  persecuted, 
461. 

his  first  teaching  a  modified 
Judaism,  463. 


u 

<> 


Mohammed,  his  departure  to  Medina  with 
his  followers,  464. 
change  in  his  character  af¬ 
ter  the  Hegira,  465. 
in  his  last  ten  years  a  politi¬ 
cal  leader,  467. 

Goethe’s  view  of  his  charac¬ 
ter,  468. 

his  cruel  treatment  of  the 
Jews,  469. 

his  numerous  wives,  470. 
his  death  and  character,  471. 
Mohammedanism,  its  special  interest,  448. 

“  its  essential  doctrine  the 

absolute  unity  of  God, 
472. 

its  teaching  concerning 
the  Bible  and  Koran, 
472. 

does  not  recognize  human 
brotherhood ,  473. 
among  the  Turks,  its 
character,  473. 
promotes  religious  feel¬ 
ing,  474. 

inspires  courage  and  res¬ 
ignation,  474. 
in  Palestine,  described  by 
Miss  Rogers,  475. 
in  Central  Arabia,  de¬ 
scribed  by  Mr.  Pal- 
grave,  478. 

in  Central  Asia,  described 
by  M.  Vambdry,  477. 
in  Persia,  described  by 
Count  Gobineau,  477. 
in  Egypt,  described  by 
Mr.  Lane,  477. 
in  Turkey,  described  by 
Mr.  MacFarlane,  478, 
484. 

in  Northern  Africa,  de¬ 
scribed  by  Barth  and 
Blerzey ,  477,  485. 
its  character  given  by  M. 
Renan, 485. 

its  monotheism  lower 
than  that  of  Judaism 
and  Christianity,  481. 
does  not  convert  the 
Aryan  races,  500. 
pure  from  Polytheism. 
502. 

has  a  tendency  to  catho¬ 
licity,  503. 

a  relapse  to  a  lower 
stand-point,  483. 
summary  of  its  good  and 
evil  influence,  484. 
Monotheism  (or  Dualism),  the  doctrine  of 
the  Avesta,  203. 

Montesquieu  quoted,  357. 

Moses,  his  historic  character,  409. 

“  described  by  Strabo  (note),  410. 

“  his  natural  genius  and  tempera¬ 
ment,  411. 

“  his  severity  and  tenderness,  412. 

“  his  sense  of  justice  embodied  in 
law,  412. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 


525 


Mo'es,  his  object  to  teach  the  holiness  of 
God,  413. 

“  defects  of  his  character,  413. 

“  character  of  his  monotheism,  414. 

“  his  monotheism  described  by  Stan¬ 
ley  (note),  414. 

“  his  anthropomorphic  view  of  God, 
415 

“  his  acquaintance  with  Egyptian 
learning,  416. 

“  nature  of  his  inspiration,  417. 

“  political  freedom  secured  to  the 
Jews  by  his  law,  418. 

“  object  of  his  ceremonial  law,  420. 

Mythology  of  Scandinavia  and  that  of 
Zoroaster  compared,  384. 


N. 

Names  of  our  week-days  Scandinavian, 

358. 

Neptunus,  origin  of  the  name,  328. 
Nestorian  inscription  in  China,  71-76. 
Njbrd,  ruler  of  the  winds,  378. 

Northern  and  Southern  Europe  compared, 

359. 

Northmen  in  France,  Spain,  Italy,  and 
Greece,  389. 

Number  of  Christians  in  the  world,  146. 

“  of  Buddhists  in  the  world,  146. 

“  of  Jews  in  the  world,  146. 

“  of  Mohammedans  in  the  world, 
146. 

“  of  Brahmans,  146. 

Nyaya,  system  of  philosophy,  assumes 
three  principles,  122. 

“  system  of  philosophy,  described 
by  Banerjea,  123. 


0. 

Odin,  or  All-father,  eldest  of  the  iEsIr,377. 
“  corresponds  to  Ormazd,  385. 

“  his  festival  in  the  spring,  386. 

Ops,  goddess  of  the  harvest,  330. 


P. 

Pales,  a  rural  god,  330. 

Palestine,  or  the  land  of  the  Philistines, 
397. 

“  resembles  Greece  and  Switzer¬ 

land,  397. 

“  its  mountainous  character,  397. 

“  a  small  country,  398. 

“  its  mountains  and  valleys,  399. 

Palgrave ,  note  giving  an  extract  from  his 
book, 486. 

Papacy,  mediaeval,  good  done  by  it,  350. 

“  “  a  reproduction  of  the 

Roman  state  religion, 
350. 

Pars!  religion,  its  influence  on  Judaism, 
205. 


Pars!  religion,  its  influence  on  Chris¬ 
tianity,  204. 

“  “  teaches  a  kingdom  of 

heaven,  207. 

“  “  still  continues  in  Persia 

and  India,  208. 

Parthenon,  the,  temple  of  Minerva,  de¬ 
scribed,  290. 

Penates,  gods  of  home,  328. 

Persepolis,  ruins  of  the  palace  of  Xerxes 
at,  170. 

“  inscriptions  of  Darius  and  Xer¬ 
xes  at,  172. 

“  tombs  of  the  kings  of  Persia 
at,  174. 

Pharisees,  Sadducees,  and  Essenes,  444. 
Phidias,  his  statue  of  Jupiter  described, 
288. 

Philistines,  probably  Pelasgi  from  Crete, 
421. 

Philosophy,  early  Greek,  291. 

“  Greek,  in  Asia  Minor,  291. 

“  “  in  Italy,  292. 

Phoenicians,  their  language  a  form  of  He¬ 
brew,  400 

Plato  harmonizes  realism  and  idealism, 
293. 

“  his  philosophy  completes  that  of 
Socrates,  294. 

“  his  method  that  of  transcendental¬ 
ism,  294. 

“  his  idea  of  God  pure  and  high, 

•  295. 

“  Christian  element  in,  295. 

Pliny,  the  elder,  his  view  of  religion,  345. 
Present  work,  an  essay,  or  attempt,  1. 

“  comparison  of  religions  its 
object,  1. 

Prophecy,  a  modification  of  inspiration, 
438. 

Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament,  men  of 
action,  440. 

politicians  and  constitutional 
lawyers,  440. 

preferred  the  moral  law  to 
ceremonial,  441. 
described  by  Dean  Stanley, 
441. 

“  their  inspiration  came 
through  a  common  human 
faculty ,  442. 

“  their  predictions  not  always 

realized,  443. 

“  their  foresight  of  Christianity, 

443. 

“  developed  Judaism  to  its  high¬ 

est  point,  443. 

Proverbs,  Book  of,  in  the  Edda,  366. 
Pontiffs,  their  authority,  336. 

Positivism,  its  law  of  progress  examined, 
489. 

Puranas,  the,  much  read  by  the  common 
people,  130. 

“  devoted  to  the  worship  of  Yischnu, 

130. 

“  extol  the  power  of  penances,  131. 
“  ideas  those  of  the  epics,  132. 

“  their  philosophy  that  of  the 
Sankhya,  132. 


526 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


R. 


Ramses  IT.  a  powerful  king  B.  c.  1400,  233. 
“  supposed  to  be  the  same  as  Sesos- 
tris,  234. 

“  birth  of  Moses  during  his  reign,  335. 

Recognition  of  God  in  nature,  best  ele¬ 
ment  of  Egyptian  religion,  257. 

Relation  of  the  religion  of  the  Avesta  to 
the  Vedas,  201. 

Results  of  the  survey  of  ten  religions,  489. 
“  in  regard  to  their  resemblance  and 
difference,  490. 

Resemblance  of  the  Roman  Catholic  cere¬ 
monies  to  those  of  Pagan  Rome,  350. 
Roman  calendar,  described,  332. 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  teaches  an  exclu¬ 
sive  spiritual- 


«< 


ism,  143. 
is  eminently  a 
sacrificial  sys¬ 
tem,  143. 

“  “  “  its  monastic  sys¬ 

tem  an  in¬ 
cluded  Protes¬ 
tantism,  145. 

Roman  deities  adopted  from  Greece,  326. 

“  manufactured  by  the  pon¬ 
tiffs,  326. 

“  representing  the  powers  of 
nature,  327. 

“  representing  human  rela¬ 
tions,  328. 

“  presiding  over  rural  occupa¬ 
tions,  330. 

“  derived  from  the  Etruscans, 
327. 

empire  gave  to  Christianity  its  out¬ 
ward  form  (note),  350. 

“  united  the  several  states 
of  Europe,  350. 

law,  its  influence  on  Western  the¬ 
ology,  351. 

legal  notions  transferred  to  theolo¬ 

gy.  352. 

mind,  wanting  in  spontaneity,  316. 

“  serious,  practical,  hard,  316. 
religion,  an  established  church,  317. 
“  regarded  chiefly  external 

conduct,  317. 

“  tolerant  of  questions  of 

opinion,  317. 

“  not  a  mere  copy  from 

Greece,  318. 

described  by  Hegel,  318. 
described  by  Cicero,  317  - 
319. 

described  by  Mommsen, 

319. 

a  polytheism,  with  mo¬ 
notheism  behind  it, 

320. 

deified  all  events,  321. 
Romans,  as  a  race,  whence  derived,  319. 

belong  to  the  Aryan 
family,  319. 

composed  of  Latins,  Sa¬ 
bines,  and  Etruscans, 
320. 


u 


Romans,  as  a  race,  related  to  the  Pelasgi 
and  Celts,  320. 

“  their  oldest  deities,  Latin,  Sa¬ 
bine,  and  Etruscan,  320. 
Roman  sepulchral  monuments,  their  tone, 
346. 

Roman  thought  and  Roman  religion  op¬ 
posed,  342- 

Roman  worship,  very  elaborate  and  mi¬ 
nute,  331. 

full  of  festivals,  331. 
distinguished  between 
things  sacred  and  pro¬ 
fane,  331. 

a  yoke  on  the  public  life 
of  the  Romans,  334. 
directed  by  the  College  of 
Pontiffs,  334. 
chief  seat  in  the  Via  Sacra, 
335. 

governed  by  etiquette, 
335. 

originally  free  from  idola¬ 
try,  336. 

acted  like  a  charm, 340. 
Rome,  ancient,  its  legacy  to  Christianity, 
353. 

Runes,  Odin's  song  of,  in  the  Edda,  36S. 


S. 


Salii,  ancient  priests  of  Mars,  336. 

Sankhya  pmlosophy,  114. 

“  “  founded  on  two  prin¬ 

ciples,  120. 

“  “  considered  atheistic, 

120. 

“  “  the  basis  of  Buddh¬ 

ism,  121. 

“  “  a  very  ancient  sys¬ 

tem  ,  122. 

Saturnus,  Saturn,  god  of  planting,  330. 
Scandinavia,  consisting  of  what  regions, 
358. 

“  surrounded  by  the  sea,  358. 

“  its  adaptation  to  the  Teuton¬ 
ic  race,  359. 

“  formerly  inhabited  by  the 

Cimbri,  360. 

“  the  home  of  the  Northmen, 

361. 

Scandinavian  religion,  a  system  of  dual¬ 
ism,  332. 

*•  “  war  its  essential 

idea,  352. 

“  its  virtues,  truth, 
justice,  courage, 
362. 

Scandinavians,  their  early  history,  355. 

“  described  by  Caesar,  355. 

described  by  Tacitus,  356. 
a  branch  of  the  great  Ger¬ 
man  family ,  357. 

“  their  language,  the  Norsa 

and  its  derivatives,  357 
“  our  inheritance  from,  358. 

“  their  manners  and  institu¬ 

tions,  387. 


<( 

u 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 


527 


s 

Scandinavians,  their  respect  for  women, 
388 

“  their  Scalds,  or  bards,  388. 

“  their  maritime  expeditions, 

389. 

Sea-Kings  of  Norway,  their  discoveries, 
361. 

Seat  of  the  Scandinavian  race,  355. 

Secrecy,  the  evil  in  Egyptian  religion,  257. 
Semitic  races,  their  character  and  exploits, 

399. 

“  “  great  navigators  and  discov¬ 

erers  t  399. 

“  “  identity  of  their  languages, 

400. 

“  “  nations  of  which  they  con¬ 

sist,  399. 

“  “  their  religion  and  gods,  401. 

“  ‘‘  their  tendency  to  monothe¬ 

ism,  402. 

Seneca,  his  view  of  religion,  343  ,  344. 
Serapis,  the  same  as  Osiris-Apis,  257. 
Sibylline  books,  derived  from  Greece.  336. 
Siculi,  supposed  to  be  Kelts  (note),  320. 
Silvanus,  god  of  the  woods,  330. 

Siva,  does  not  appear  in  the  Vedas,  125. 

“  worshipped  with  Brahma  and  Visch- 
nu  at  the  present  time,  127. 

“  worshipped  in  the  Puranas,  132. 

“  girls  worship  him  with  flowers,  132. 

“  his  wife  Doorga,  festival  of,  134 
“  men  swing  on  hooks  in  honor  of, 
135. 

Solomon,  and  the  relapse  of  Judaism,  428. 
“  a  less  interesting  character  than 
David,  429. 

“  his  unscrupulous  policy,  429. 

**  the  splendor  and  power  of  his 

reign,  430. 

“  his  alliances  with  Egypt,  Phoeni¬ 
cia,  and  Arabia,  341. 

“  his  temple  described,  432. 

“  his  Book  of  Proverbs  and  its 
character,  433. 

“  account  of  his  last  days,  434. 

“  his  scepticism  described  in  Ec¬ 

clesiastes,  435. 

Socrates,  his  character  and  work,  293. 

Sol,  the  sun,  a  Sabine  deity,  327. 

Soma  plant  of  the  Veda,  the  Haoma,  202. 
Sophocles,  the  most  devout  of  the  Greek 
tragedians ,  284. 

Spiritualism,  in  Brahmanism  and  Chris¬ 
tianity,  136. 

Stoics,  as  described  by  Zeller,  296. 


T. 


Tacitus,  the  spirit  of  his  writings,  346. 

Tae-Ping  (or  Ti-Ping)  insurrection,  its  ori¬ 
gin,  62. 

“  its  leader  the  heavenly 
prince,  62. 

“  “  essentially  a  religious 

movement,  64. 

”  **  based  on  the  Bible,  65. 


(( 

U 

ii 


Tae-Pings  (or  Ti-Pings),  their  prayers,  65. 
“  “  their  public  relig¬ 

ious  exercises, 

66. 

“  “  their  moral  re¬ 

forms,  68. 

“  “  put  down  by  Brit¬ 

ish  interven¬ 
tion,  68. 

“  “  worshipped  one 

God ,  and  be¬ 
lieved  in  Jesus, 
69. 

Talmud,  the,  extracts  from,  445. 
Tao-te-king,  its  doctrines  described,  54. 

“  resembles  the  system  of  Hegel, 

54. 

“  its  doctrine  of  opposites,  55. 

“  its  resemblance  to  Buddhism, 

55. 

“  its  tendency  to  magic,  56. 
Tellus,  the  earth,  a  Roman  god,  330. 
Tempestates,  the  tempests,  worshipped  at 
Rome,  327. 

Terminus,  an  old  Italian  god,  330. 

Three  classes  of  Roman  gods,  325. 
Tiberinus,  or  father  Tiber,  a  Roman  god, 
328. 

Things,  or  popular  assemblies  of  the  Scan¬ 
dinavians,  358. 

Thor,  his  character  and  prowess,  377. 
his  famous  mallet,  378. 
his  journey  to  Jotunheim,  374. 
his  fight  with  the  Midgard  serpent, 
376. 

Triad,  the  Hindoo,  its  origin,  124. 

“  “  compared  with  other 

Triads ,  124. 

Trinity,  Christian,  derived  from  Egypt, 
255. 

Trinity,  the,  its  meaning  in  Christianity, 
500. 

Truths  and  errors  of  the  different  systems, 

21. 

Tyr,  the  Scandinavian  war  god,  379. 

“  how  he  lost  his  hand,  380,  383. 


U. 


Ulphilas,  the  Arian,  first  Christian  teacher 
of  the  Germans,  390. 

“  his  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
Gothic  tongue,  390. 


Vedanta  philosophy  assumes  a  single  prin¬ 
ciple,  116. 

“  “  knows  no  substance 

but  God, 119 

“  “  described  by  Chunder 

Dutt,  118. 

“  “  souls  absorbed  in  God, 

119. 

Vedas,  the,  when  written,  89-99. 

“  “  their  chief  gods,  89 -99. 

“  “  traces  of  monotheism  in,  90. 


528 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Vedas,  the,  some  hymn«  given,  91, 92, 93,95. 
Vedic  literature,  divided  into  four  periods, 
95. 

“  “  contains  Chhandas,  Man¬ 

tras,  Brahmans,  Upan- 
ishads,  Sutras,  and 
Yed.ingas,  96. 

“  “  at  first  not  committed  to 

writing,  97. 

Venus,  an  early  Latin  or  Sabine  goddess, 
325. 

Vertumnus,  god  of  gardens,  330. 

Vesta,  goddess  of  the  hearth,  328. 

Vestal  Virgins,  their  duties,  337. 

Vischnu,  mentioned  in  the  llig-Veda  as 
Sun-God,  125. 

“  his  Avatars,  126. 

“  one  of  the  Triad,  126. 

“  incarnate  as  Juggernaut.  133. 

“  worshipped  as  Krishna,  134,  135. 

“  worshipped  in  the  Puranas,  132. 

Voluspa,  or  wisdom  of  Vala,  extracts  from, 
364. 

Yulcanus,  an  Italian  deity,  328. 


W. 

Wahhabee,  revival  in  Arabia,  described  by 
Palgrave,  478. 

Wedding  ring,  in  Egypt  and  Christendom, 
253. 


Welcker,  his  opinion  of  the  substance  of 
Greek  religion,  286. 

Works  on  Scandinavian  religion  (note! 

362.  ’ 

Worship  of  the  Scandinavians,  385. 


Z. 


Zend  Avesta,  a  collection  of  hymns,  prayers, 
and  thanksgivings,  187. 
extracts  from  the  Gathas,188. 
“  extract  from  the  Khordah 

Avesta,  189. 

“  hymn  to  the  star  Tistrya,  190. 

“  hymn  to  Mithra,  190. 

“  a  confession  of  sin,  191. 

Zoroaster,  mentioned  by  Plato,  Diodorus, 
and  other  classic  writers,  175. 
account  of  him  by  Herodotus, 

175. 

account  of  him  by  Plutarch, 

176. 

inquiry  as  to  his  epoch,  180. 
resided  in  Bactria,  181. 
spirit  of  his  religion,  182. 
he  continually  appears  in  the 
Avesta,  183. 

oppressed  with  the  sight  of  eviL 

184. 


(< 


THE  END. 


- - ■ — '  -  ■ 

Cambridge  :  Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co. 


